FCM, local governments continue Trump tariff fight
Ever since U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods, municipal officials – including Rebecca Bligh, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities – have been working behind the scenes to mitigate the impact of a potential trade war. Photo: Federation of Canadian Municipalities
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed his long-threatened 25 per cent tariff on Canadians goods on March 4. Trump’s order, looming since his January inauguration, has driven politicians at all levels to address the impending economic chaos both domestically and internationally.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has been intimately involved in these conversations. For example, members of FCM’s Big City Mayors’ Caucus travelled to Washington D.C. back in February, alongside Canada’s premiers, to discuss the threat.
And while Trump paused his initial threat in early February, work has continued behind the scenes to mitigate the impact of U.S. tariffs on Canadian municipalities.
Tariff Conversations Continue
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham continued the conversation started by FCM when he recently when he travelled to Phoenix, Ariz., last month to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Gillingham said U.S. tariffs and potential Canadian counter-tariffs will impact local economies, making it challenging for Canadian cities. Canada’s economy runs though its municipalities, Gillingham said after returning from Phoenix. As such, tariffs will cause the price of everything to rise, and municipalities will end up paying a heavy price.
Gillingham said he felt his U.S. counterparts understood Canada’s perspective and were also sympathetic to it as well. After all, what they understood as mayors is that tariffs will impact their cities, too. At the end of the day, Gillingham said, a tariff is a tax, and the tax is always passed on to the consumer.
As such, Gillingham said the U.S. mayors were “very, very receptive” to what they were hearing from their Canadian counterparts.
“Part of the strategy of FCM is about getting the information to the right people who can leverage their relationships to ultimately try to put pressure on President Trump to change course on the tariffs,” Gillingham said. “Part of what we’re strategically trying to do is – by talking to U.S. mayors – asking those U.S. mayors to in turn speak to their state representatives and their federal representatives, their congressmen and women, their U.S. senators, to try to put the pressure ultimately on the president to say tariffs are going to hurt Americans.”
FCM Continues Having an Impact
Rebecca Bligh knows well the intensity of these conversations. Bligh, president of FCM and a Vancouver city councillor, participated in the Washington D.C. mission. She has continued to drive the anti-tariff conversation.
While Trump paused his initial tariff threat, and may yet again, Bligh said she is proud of the efforts of local governments across Canada to be part of the solution to the pending crisis.
Bligh has welcomed feedback from FCM member municipalities, which have shared messages and written emails about the organization’s value in facing the tariffs. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, as FCM has swiftly taken action.
The downstream impacts a trade war with the U.S. would have significant ramifications for FCM member municipalities. But Bligh is quick to add it’s been promising to see the appreciation coming from the FCM membership.
She emphasized the importance, noting many people feel discouraged by Canada’s ability to influence the U.S. president. Still, she added, Canadians shouldn’t underestimate the ground game of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of mayors across not only Canada but the U.S., too.
“I’m not going to get into the process of how this will come forward in terms of making it law. But I think that our advocacy and our method at FCM has been tried and tested over 120 years,” Bligh said. “There’s a saying that one of our members said to me, ‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.’ I did appreciate that, and I’ll never forget that. But the point being is that what we need to do is be at the table.”
Value of a Canada-First Approach
Gillingham agreed that Canadians shouldn’t get despondent. This is also true at the municipal level, where he said there are many things local governments can do prepare themselves for whatever comes next.
Gillingham mentioned that Winnipeg is adopting an approach to review local procurement of goods and services, a strategy being replicated by many communities nationwide. This method encourages municipalities to evaluate their sourcing practices internally.
Municipalities, he said, can look at their own sources of procurement, the goods that they are buying, and see if they can find ways immediately to change direction and to buy local – to buy Canadian.
Additionally, Gillingham emphasized that every municipality should leverage their relationships with MPs, MLAs, and MPPs to push for the elimination of interprovincial trade barriers. This would help open up markets within Canada.
“If we eliminate those trade barriers, we can mitigate to some degree some of the losses that we may see, or reduction we may see, in the U.S. market,” Gillingham said. “Municipal leaders are in a position to not just passively take it, but to use their resources, their ingenuity, their relationships to try to mitigate the impact of tariffs and counter tariffs.”
Where to Go From Here
Both Bligh and Gillingham agree there is a lot of trepidation among Canadians about what may come from Trump’s trade war. And while there is no looking on the “bright side,” so to speak, there are things to be taken from the Canadian response.
Bligh emphasized the need for municipalities to maintain strong relationships with provincial and federal governments to address complex community challenges. The tariff threat, she added, is just one example.
What’s important, Bligh said, was for local governments to listen to diverse voices around the tables where they are talking about these very real challenges. Only then can governments start to distill common interests and cut through some of the political positions and start to address the wicked problems of today.
“It comes down to listening, and listening for where there’s common interest,” Bligh said. “That’s how I weather these storms. Politics every day is a different issue. It comes down to really seeing that people care about the places they live, and they rely on us as elected officials to help them get the services and build the communities where they can thrive.”
Forging a Path Forward
Gillingham said he sees a rise in unity and patriotism within Canada unlike anything he can recall since the Quebec referendum in 1995.
Reflecting on his trip to Phoenix, Gillingham said that the mayors he met with, to a person, were saying they do not want Canada to be a 51st state. They instead recognized Canada’s sovereignty as allies and trading partners.
Gillingham noted an “alignment of partnership within Canada,” where Canadians, despite their differences, recognize the need to stand united and collaborate to combat threats from the U.S. president. He emphasized the importance of working together to find solutions.
“I feel very positive. But my head is not in the sand. I understand that if the president does indeed implement these tariffs, it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt our city; it’s going to hurt our economy,” Gillingham said. “We’re doing all that we can, and it’s about every one of us in our respective sphere doing our part to be part of the overall collaborative effort to try to protect our economies.” MW
✯ Municipal World Executive and Essentials Plus Members: You might also be interested in Sheila Moore’s article: Psychological safety and internal communication.
Sean Meyer is digital content editor for Municipal World.
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