The City of Greater Sudbury has added teeth to what was until now a much gentler pushback against U.S. tariffs.
During the March 18 finance and administration committee meeting of city council, the city’s elected officials asked staff to draft amendments to the city’s purchasing processes.
These changes, to be presented at the April 22 finance meeting, include a requirement that at least 90 per cent of the people doing work for the city on any project are “Canadian or non-U.S.-based” and that their company “has an office or production facility in Canada.”
This non-U.S. requirement is to remain in place as long as U.S. tariffs “are in effect or are still being threatened, wherever possible, recognizing that certain goods and services may only be available in the United States.”
Mayor Paul Lefebvre drafted the successful motion as a follow-up to a motion he tabled last month which requested that city staff push to allow municipalities greater leeway on making purchases of non-U.S. goods and services.
The concern was that free trade agreements can prohibit nation-first purchasing practices and those aimed at freezing out the United States.
Lefebvre’s follow-up motion adds teeth, which he told Sudbury.com after Tuesday’s meeting is “skirting with” these federal trade rules.
“No doubt about it, but right now, our partner's done that as well,” he said in reference to tariffs being imposed by the United States government.
“We need to protect ourselves as well. We’re in a trade war. We didn’t start it, they did, so we’re doing everything we can to protect our jobs, our opportunities here.”
Although the bylaw amendments won’t take effect until April 22 at the earliest, Lefebvre directed city Growth and Infrastructure general manager Tony Cecutti to apply the new procurement rules to the request for proposal currently open for event centre venue management services.
Two U.S.-headquartered companies pre-qualified for the project and placed bids.
With this request for proposals slated to close this week, Lefebvre said they’ll have to ensure that at least 90 per cent of the work is done by non-U.S. people and that they have an office in Canada.
In an opinion piece, Lefebvre asserts that more value-added work needs to be done with critical minerals in the Greater Sudbury area.
“We need to develop nickel sulfate processing capacity right here in Sudbury, along with pre-cathode active material (pCAM) production capability,” he wrote. “We have the land, the talent, the resources, and over 100 years of mineral processing experience needed to do this.”
Further, Lefebvre wrote that he’s got investors and Indigenous community leaders at the table to do it.
The municipality's role, he told Sudbury.com after Tuesday’s meeting, is as “facilitators” and “advocates.”
“I’m talking to everybody we can to say, we have the land, we have the resources here, we have the talent to make it happen.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Lefebvre noted that although the Canadian Chamber of Commerce ranked Greater Sudbury as No. 41 in their list of most tariff-vulnerable cities in Canada (of a list of 41), “We must not take anything for granted, and these tariffs will affect us all.”
Less than one per cent of all goods and services used by the city are dependent on U.S. suppliers, Lefebvre shared during Tuesday’s meeting.
Other municipalities have implemented procedure rules similar to those Greater Sudbury is looking to adopt on April 22, Lefebvre said. Where Vaughan and Toronto require that 70 per cent of projects’ workforce is Canadian or non-U.S., Greater Sudbury’s is 90.
On a related point, Lefebvre said that although some people have been requesting the city remove U.S. flags from city properties and ban U.S. sports teams from playing in Greater Sudbury, he’s not willing to take these steps.
“While I share the deep frustration against the current U.S. government actions, in my view, these flags do not reflect the current U.S. government, but the people from the U.S. who are living here, work here or visit here, and they are not to blame,” he said.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, Lefebvre’s office issued a media release highlighting the evening's motion, including supportive statements from the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation Board and the Downtown Sudbury Business Improvement Area.
"The Greater Sudbury Development Corporation board is proud to stand behind our local and Canadian companies, ensuring our dollars will continue to strengthen our community and economy,” GSDC chair Jeff Portelance said in the media release. “This motion is designed to protect our businesses and workers while building long-term economic resilience for Greater Sudbury.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Lefebvre also promoted the delegation he is leading in a tour of Korea and Japan next month alongside local mining and Indigenous leaders.
Lefebvre said that this effort’s ultimate measure of success will be whether Korean and Japanese dignitaries respond by visiting Greater Sudbury in return.
The operational clause of Lefebvre’s motion was as follows
BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to present amendments to the City’s Purchasing Bylaw at the April 22nd meeting of the Finance & Administration Committee that will provide strategies to enable the City to prioritize procurement from Canadian and non-US entities while such tariffs are in effect or are still being threatened, wherever possible recognizing that certain Goods and Services may only be available in the United States;
AND THAT such strategies include a review of different CGS purchasing processes and their related thresholds to maximize the ability to purchase Goods and Services from Canadian sources;
AND THAT the review incorporate a definition of “Canadian or non-US Supplier” into its purchasing policy which includes requirements that will have the proposed work performed by a workforce of which at least 90 per cent is Canadian or non-US based and has an office or production facility in Canada;
AND THAT such definition be used for higher value procurements to allow for a scoring advantage to be implemented for suppliers that meet such a definition;
AND THAT the strategies to be proposed herein be reviewed in accordance with the changes to imposed tariffs, on a regular basis with committee with recommendations for changes to ensure their effectiveness.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
