Buy local, buy Canadian: Burnaby Mayor

Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley put forward a motion during a special council meeting on Feb. 4 to encourage all Burnaby residents to support Canadian businesses by buying local Canadian products. The motion comes in response to US President Donald Trump announcing 25% tariffs on Canadian products, which elicited a response from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to impose retaliatory tariffs on US products. 

Hurley’s motion encourages “all Burnabarians, including Canadians, permanent residents, and those who currently call Canada home” to “buy local and buy Canadian.” 

The city will also adopt a “buy local and buy Canadian” approach with its procurement and “where feasible and in accordance with trade agreements and best value principles.” City staff were directed to “review current procurement practices and identify opportunities to enhance local purchasing in response to recent US tariffs and economic pressures,” and report back to council as soon as possible.   

During the meeting, Hurley said the purpose of the motion was to show unity and for Canadians to stand up to a “bully.”

“It has never been more important for Canadians to stand together against, I don't even know how you describe the leader of the United States, irrational, a bully,” Hurley said. “If anything, on border security, I believe they need more security on their side of the border to keep their illegal guns from coming across to Canada, which I see as an even bigger issue than the 1% or 2% of the drugs that actually make it into the United States come through the Canadian borders.”

Coun. Sav Dhaliwal agreed with Hurley, adding that the tariffs are just a tactic to intimidate Canada.

“Their initial issue about tariffs is a very manufactured issue. It really doesn't hold any truth,” Dhaliwal said. “He wants to annex Canada. In fact, after he had a discussion yesterday with Prime Minister Trudeau, if you continue to take his latest after that, he never budged from that. He believes that, deep down, in his mind, the only way things are going to be resolved is when Canada becomes the 51st state, a very grotesque thought.”

Coun. Alison Gu spoke about the important role immigrants play in food production and how a lot of the agricultural products Canadians purchase are grown, cleaned and packaged by immigrants.

“I hope that we can recognize that there are a number of aspects at play here, and that buying local is not necessarily the end all be all. It's our solution to a much larger problem, and the people who are feeding us are also the people that are being demonized and alienated in this conversation,” Gu said. “The second piece is that largely the the responses that and the solutions that we have towards this tariff issue—to stand united, to take care for one another, and to support local economies and local farmers and local workers—are also largely the solutions that we need to be implementing in the context of the climate crisis.”

After discussions between the US president and Canada’s prime minister on Feb. 3, the two governments agreed to postpone the tariffs for another month. 

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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