Burnaby takes steps to “Buy Canadian”

With a looming trade war with the US, Canadian provinces and cities have started implementing measures to protect local economies. The City of Burnaby is no exception; last month, the city council held a special council meeting to discuss ways to mitigate the negative effects of Trump’s tariffs and encourage Burnaby residents to buy Canadian and boycott US products and services. 

One of the measures approved by council recently was to halt all non-essential work travel to the US by city staff. The measures were met with much support from the mayor and city councillors. 

“This is a conflict that all of us should be really paying attention to, not just the city staff. I would encourage all the listeners and people in Burnaby, the region, and the country to avoid unnecessary travel to the US,” Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said during the council meeting on Feb. 25. 

According to Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley, the city is currently examining its procurement processes to ensure most of what it procures is from Canadian vendors, but the situation is slightly more complex than just buying from Canadian businesses. Hurley said that the city’s analysis shows that around 95% of the municipality’s vendors are Canadian, and 99% of its spending has been with Canadian vendors. 

“That’s almost $3.8 billion spent on Canadian vendors over the last five years. But because our economy is so integrated with the US, we want to push our vendors a little more to see what we can do even better. Although we’re buying from Canadian vendors, we’re not too sure where they’re procuring from,” Hurley told the Beacon. 

Hurley said the first step is a “fact-finding mission,” during which the city will ask its vendors if they have US suppliers and find alternatives and ways to improve local procurement. Hurley added that the city has created a new “Buy Local, Buy Canadian” working group to identify substitutes and build economic resilience.  

“We’re working with other municipalities and provinces to explore further strategies to strengthen local and national procurement, and so those are some of the steps we have at the city,” Hurley said. 

Hurley said that US tariffs may negatively affect the city’s large-scale civic projects, such as its recreation centres and others, although the true extent of these adverse effects is not yet known. 

“We’re buying ahead of time to try and get ahead of it. But there’s no question that, if these tariffs continue, and who knows with Mr. Trump, it could change in the next five minutes, but there doesn’t really seem to be an end game that I can see other than that he wants to break our economy or bully his way into Canada together to get our resources,” Hurley said. 

Housing and construction are expected to be affected by the Trump tariffs, as the cost of building materials may rise in the coming weeks or months. This, in turn, will affect the city’s numerous housing projects and housing affordability. Hurley said the exact effects are still unknown, but the city is encouraging developers to build greater resiliency in their systems. 

Ultimately, Hurley said that building resilience in Canada is a long-term way to reduce the country’s vulnerability to any trade wars imposed by its trade partners. Overreliance on one trade partner or a small number of trade partners, while having few internal options, creates greater vulnerability. 

“I believe that all our products in Canada should be finished here. We shouldn’t be sending out unfinished products. You know, if you want our products, well, we’re going to finish them, and you’re going to pay our price. But I’ve always felt bad about shipping out raw logs,” Hurley said. “Even with the oil industry, we should be finishing whatever products we’re doing here in Canada, in my opinion.”

Hurley acknowledged the difficulties and challenges many people face in switching to Canadian products but said he hopes this will encourage Canadians to support local industries. 

“I can tell you my wife’s been going through all this at home, and it really is a big project to take on to find out what’s truly Canadian. I know she’s spending extra time in the grocery stores trying to figure it out,” he said. “It really is time to stand up and stand with Canada and stand against this bully over the border who’s trying to bully us into certain positions. So if there was ever a time to stand up and be a proud Canadian, this is it.”

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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