How local governments in B.C. want to 'choose Canada' in the face of U.S. tariff threat
Vancouver city councillors have unanimously voted to align the city with a so-called 'Team Canada' approach other levels of government are taking in response to the U.S. tariff threat.
A motion moved by the sole opposition councillor on council, the Green's Pete Fry and subsequently supercharged by the mayor's office was embraced by all of of council Tuesday.
"We are completely united on this issue, and we're working together to be incredibly nimble," said Mayor Ken Sim.
"And really being prepared," added Fry. "I think that's a big part of our response … coming together to find solutions to support our local economy and support Canada."
The motion was originally brought as urgent new business by Fry last week, but was elevated to a special council meeting Tuesday.
Fry's original motion responded to a call from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking consumers to "choose Canada," in response to the U.S. tariff threat, by purchasing Canadian products and reducing the number of products imported from the U.S.
On Monday, Trump placed a 25 per cent tariff on all aluminum and steel imports, including Canada.
And other tariffs from the U.S. are still a possibility after months of threats. Canada won a 30 day reprieve from 25 per cent tariffs on virtually all its goods and 10 per cent on Canadian oil.
Trump has said the tariffs are necessary to deal with what he sees as border security issues around fentanyl and illegal immigration.
WATCH | CBC News' Katie DeRosa explains B.C.'s Trump's tariff pain:
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, in concert with Fry over the last week, vastly expanded the motion to ultimately chart a path that would bolster Vancouver's economy to withstand uncertainty that could be a hallmark of President Trump's four-year term.
"There's a lot of fear out there now and we're all working together to make sure we're making this place a little better for everyone, " said Sim.
Council ideas are preliminary and will require staff to investigate and report back on them, but they include:
Establishing an internal roundtable to facilitate the rapid response to tariffs.
Possible temporary fee reductions for patio permits and special event permits.
Possible property tax deferral for commercial and/or light industrial properties.
Exploring so-called split business licences for businesses to offer more services without multiple licences.
The motion also calls for the creation of a mayor's task force, "with a mandate to examine new pathways to make Vancouver the most competitive city for business in North America, including an aspirational goal to achieve an annual three per cent growth in GDP."
The goal comes from the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, which said its three per cent challenge to local governments is meant to ensure financial security and improved affordability.
"The best thing the city can do is act within its powers to make it easier to set up and run a business," said CEO Bridgette Anderson in a statement.
"By speeding up permitting, reducing red tape, controlling costs, taxes and fees and continuing to support public safety, we will see meaningful benefits for our community."
WATCH | CBC News explains B.C. and U.S. trade relationship:
Tamara Krawchenko, associate professor in public administration at the University of Victoria and chair of the school's local governance hub, said Vancouver has been a leader in procurement policies in the past and Tuesday's motion could inspire other local governments.
"I think that B.C. might be quite particularly progressive in thinking about sustainability and local supply chains in procurement at the local level," she said. "And I don't know that that's actually true across Canada."
Other local B.C. governments are making plans for "buy Canada" or already have them in place in relation to procurement and services.
On Feb. 3, Delta councillors passed a motion to have staff write to B.C. Premier David Eby to ask the province to, "amend all applicable legislation to allow cities to accept only Canadian businesses in procurement bids.
The next day on Feb. 4, Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley posted a notice of motion calling for a 'buy local and buy Canadian," from all residents and a similar approach be implemented for the city's procurement, "where feasible and in accordance with trade agreements and best value principles."
Already buying Canadian?
An email from City of Vancouver staff said in 2024, the city did direct business with 224 U.S. vendors worth $6.1 million dollars Cdn. From 2009 to the present, the city has done business with 32,000 vendors, with the vast majority, 91 per cent, of them Canadian.
Eight per cent of suppliers, 2,451, were from the United States, while one per cent, 189, were from other countries.
In a report going to councillors in New Westminster on Tuesday, staff said of the 2,788 vendors the city has or currently uses, 2,699, or 97 per cent, are Canadian vendors.
"The city's practices around procuring goods and/or services has always been to source Canadian made alternatives first before sourcing foreign made products," said the report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Here is Why Sable Offshore (SOC) Fell This Week
The share price of Sable Offshore Corp. (NYSE:SOC) fell by 4.66% between June 3 and June 10, 2025, putting it among the Energy Stocks that Lost the Most This Week. Let's shed some light on the development. Copyright: 1971yes / 123RF Stock Photo Sable Offshore Corp. (NYSE:SOC) is a Houston-based independent upstream company focused on developing the prolific Santa Ynez Unit in federal waters offshore California. Sable Offshore Corp. (NYSE:SOC) continues to sink after Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Donna Geck ordered the company to halt restart efforts on the operation's onshore pipeline system while a related lawsuit is being resolved. The restraining order will remain in effect through at least mid-July and could even be extended. As a result, Sable has now pushed back their restart timeline from the beginning of July to August 1, 2025. Sable Offshore Corp. (NYSE:SOC) posted significant gains in May after the company announced that it had restarted oil production at the previously dormant Santa Ynez Unit. However, the stock has now sunk by more than 30% over the last two weeks following the interventions by the court and the California Coastal Commission. While we acknowledge the potential of SOC as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Cheap Energy Stocks to Buy Now and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
I outran ICE. Now I'm back on the streets looking for illegal work
When a black Jeep rolled into the Home Depot car park just after 8.30am on Friday morning, Abraham sprung into action. As Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents dressed in vests and helmets climbed out of their blacked-out vehicle, he did his best to warn his fellow illegal migrants camped outside the hardware store in search of work. 'La migra! La migra!' he screamed, before sprinting away from the scene. Dozens of people tried to follow him. 'I felt very scared when I saw them coming but I ran like a flash and they didn't get me,' he says. Like the 100 or so men who gather daily outside the DIY shop in Westlake, Los Angeles, that morning Abraham had been hoping to pick up a day's work from customers in need of help for their home improvements. Most of those he was standing with are undocumented. Nicaragua-born Abraham managed to escape but not everyone was so lucky. At least 40 men, some of whom had lived in the US for decades, were handcuffed and detained by ICE agents who had raided a string of workplaces and Home Depot locations that morning, sparking a wave of volatile protests which have gripped Los Angeles and spread to more than 35 other cities. Despite the pervasive threat of deportation, Abraham was back at the Home Depot parking lot on Wednesday morning to resume his search for work. The targeting of day labourers in Home Depots, workers at car washes and clothing manufacturers marks a gear change in the administration's attempts to ramp up its deportation efforts in order to fulfil Donald Trump's 'largest deportation program' in US history. While officials had initially focused their efforts on those with criminal records, Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr Trump's hardline immigration policy, instructed ICE field officers to begin widening their nets. Mr Miller has set a target of 'at least' 3,000 arrests a day, a steep jump from the roughly 660 daily arrests during Mr Trump's first 100 days in office. He is understood to have directed ICE chiefs to start targeting spots where migrants congregate, specifically naming Home Depot. It is a move that has drawn fierce opposition from not only Mr Trump's political opponents such as Gavin Newsom, the Democrat governor, but also from some of the Republican leader's supporters, with Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia, the co-founder of Latinas for Trump, saying the move was 'not what we voted for'. While demonstrations have brought parts of the state to a standstill, the ICE raids have continued at pace, with uniformed officers chasing farmworkers through fields and turning up at churches to arrest migrants. While the majority of migrants have stayed home amid the ongoing threat, Abraham, a father-of-two, who crossed the El Paso border with Ciudad Juarez three years ago, says he has no choice but to take the risk and continue his search for work at Home Depot. 'I'm not afraid to come... I have to work because if I don't work I can't eat,' he tells The Telegraph as he cools himself from the California sun with a pink plastic portable fan. Obdulio, another undocumented worker who managed to flee the Home Depot raid on Friday, had also returned on Wednesday despite seeing at least a dozen people 'grabbed' by ICE agents. The Guatemalan, who has lived in the US for 20 years, was frustrated he could not do anything to help his friends. 'You can't confront them because they're going to take you away, so what we did was shout at people to run and we kept running,' he says. Obdulio, 48, who did not want to give his last name, told The Telegraph: 'We are still in fear because we've heard ICE is still roaming here.' 'We're not criminals, we come to work honestly without harming anyone,' he adds. Standing on the other side of the Westlake Home Depot car park, Edwin Cuadra, who is from Guatemala and has a green card, recounted how he saw ICE agents arriving on Friday morning in his car's wing mirror. 'Those who don't have papers had to escape, they started running,' he says. The number of people out looking for work has since dwindled, he says, because migrants are terrified they will be caught. 'It's very bad,' he adds, becoming tearful. 'They are my brothers, like my family. They need the money to pay rent, to pay bills.' On the sixth day of demonstrations in Los Angeles, a largely peaceful protest of around 1,000 protesters briefly became chaotic when police on horseback charged at protesters and hit them with wooden rods before the area's 8pm curfew came into effect. Officers fired rubber bullets and pepper balls into the crowd before carrying out dozens of arrests and packing protesters into police vans, but the streets downtown were mostly quiet by 9pm. In recent days demonstrations across the city at times became violent, with some agitators setting fire to cars and throwing Molotov cocktails, fireworks and rocks at police. Some of the thousands of National Guard troops controversially deployed by Mr Trump despite governor Gavin Newsom insisting they were not needed have been assisting ICE officers as they round up illegal migrants on raids, standing by with their rifles as agents arrest and detain people. The 700 Marines sent into Los Angeles by Mr Trump will also accompany ICE agents on missions, officials have said, sparking fears that the administration could further intensify the pace of its raids. Mr Newsom has warned the unprecedented militarisation of the state would spread further. 'Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,' he said on Tuesday. 'California may be first, but it clearly won't end here.' The Department of Homeland Security released an Uncle Sam style poster on social media on Wednesday urging members of the public to report 'foreign invaders'. As ICE raids continued in spite of the protests, on Monday morning a Home Depot in Huntington Park, around eight miles away from the Westlake branch, was targeted. Eduardo Baz, 45, who illegally crossed into the US from Honduras 20 years ago, was lucky to have escaped. He had been a safe distance away when he saw federal agents starting to detain migrants in the car park at around 7.30am. The only saving grace, he says, was that it was early so not many people had arrived at the shop. On Wednesday morning he was one of a handful of migrants who had returned to the car park hoping to pick up work. 'Of course we're all afraid,' he says. 'All these years later, they can send you home in one swoop.' 'You're never calm, you're always afraid they might catch you at any moment.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Texas clarified when abortions are OK and aligned with RFK Jr. on health this legislative session
The 2025 Texas Legislature proved to be a session of recalibration, where health care regulations were either tightened or loosened and attempts to delve further into some policy areas were left hanging until the next session. The past two legislative sessions saw more seismic shifts: a near-total ban on abortion, a massive expansion of the state's psychiatric hospital system, the teeniest of Medicaid expansions to offer one year of insurance coverage to new moms and a mental health budget boom following the tragic Uvalde school shooting. That didn't appear to leave much for the 89th Legislature to do on health, although lawmakers managed to approve a handful of intriguing bills and budget requests while killing other proposals. Vaccine-hesitant parents successfully lobbied and won easier access to the vaccine exemption form and lawmakers narrowly clarified the state's near-total abortion bans to give doctors more confidence in performing life-saving abortions. They also passed a historic $3 billion dementia research fund that awaits voter approval in November. There were also a variety of bills signaling to the Trump administration, particularly U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that Texas was all on board his priorities to create transparency on food labeling and to stamp out chronic diseases. The remaining health care cliffhanger is whether Gov. Greg Abbott signs or vetoes a hard-fought ban on THC products in the state. Abbott has until June 22 to veto any legislation passed this session. Otherwise, most of them will go into effect immediately or in September, even without his signature. Here's a rundown of how health care fared this past session. House Bill 1586 allows anyone the ability to download a vaccine exemption vaccine exemption form at home. The form allows children to be exempted from being vaccinated to attend public schools. Currently, parents have to contact the Texas Department of State of Health Services and request the exemption form be mailed to them. Critics of the bill fear it would allow vaccine exemptions to flourish, as the state grapples with declining vaccination rates, but proponents say the bill is only meant to make it easier for parents to access a form. Other vaccine skeptic measures that passed include HB 4076 which bars making patients ineligible as organ transplant recipients solely based on their vaccination status and Senate Bill 269 which requires providers to report patients' vaccine complications to the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. HB 4535 requires health care providers obtain informed consent from patients before a COVID-19 vaccine is administered and that patients receive notice about possible side effects. Two nutrition bills dubbed Make Texas Healthy Again bills passed. Texans who receive benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program will no longer be able to purchase soda and candy with their Lone Star card following the passage of SB 379. SB 25 requires food manufacturers to label foods by 2027 that contain any one of 44 additives or colorings not permitted in food sold in the United Kingdom, Australia, the European Union or Canada. The state labeling requirements would take effect on Jan. 1, 2027 but a loophole exists that if on Dec. 31, 2026 a snack food producer wants to stick with its existing packaging for another decade, no warning label is needed because the new law 'applies only to a food product label developed or copyrighted on or after January 1, 2027.' The bill also requires elementary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions to re-prioritize health and exercise. It also forces health professionals to take continuing education courses regarding nutrition and metabolic health. And it will require recess or physical activity for kids in charter schools – physical activity is already required in public schools. HB 26 creates a pilot program within Medicaid to offer pregnant moms with nutritional counseling and medically-tailored meals. Texas banned all abortions three years ago, with a narrow exception that allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy only to save a pregnant patient's life. Immediately, doctors and legal experts warned that this exception was too narrow and vaguely written, and the penalties were too severe, to ensure women could get life-saving care. SB 31 says doctors need not wait until death is imminent to intervene, but affirms that the condition must be life-threatening to justify performing an abortion. It will also require doctors and lawyers to take continuing education courses on the nuances of the law. Legislators passed a bill restricting cities, like Austin and San Antonio, from using taxpayer dollars to assist people who travel out-of-state to have an abortion. But the highest profile anti-abortion bill, SB 2880, which would have allowed anyone who manufactures, distributes, provides or prescribes abortion pills to be sued for $100,000 passed the Senate but stalled in the House. Lawmakers passed bills to expand crisis hotline services and provide loan reimbursement to address the mental health workforce shortage. After a couple days of debate about the role of mental health professionals in Texas, lawmakers passed SB 646, which broadens eligibility for Texas' loan repayment assistance program to include school counselors, marriage and family therapists, and other behavioral health professionals. HB 5342 establishes the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Trust Fund, which will accept donations, grants and federal funds to maintain or improve the crisis line. Additionally, the bill mandates an annual report on the usage of the crisis centers participating in the 988 network. Texas lawmakers imposed some restrictions on how minors accessed social media. SB 2420 sets up requirements for age verification and parental consent before a minor is allowed to download or make purchases within software applications. Under this bill, developers must assign age ratings to their apps, disclose the reason for the rating, and notify the app stores of any significant changes. Parental consent will not be required for specific emergency or educational applications, such as those providing access to crisis hotlines. A bill to ban minors from social media altogether failed in the last few days of the legislative session. Several budget items involving health care and services for Texans were also approved. Among them were an extra $100 million to fund child care scholarships to low income families on a waitlist for child care. Nearly 95,000 Texas children are on a waitlist for child care scholarships at a time when facilities are closing and the cost of child care in Texas is making it difficult for working parents to make ends meet. Last year, HHSC asked for $300 million worth of upgrades for its Medicaid and food stamps enrollment system but will? receive less than half that ask, about $139 million. The agency's request came after Texas and the nation suspended Medicaid rules requiring participants to renew their applications more often during the pandemic and then removed nearly 2 million participants following the pandemic. The improvements will shorten the time between application for health care coverage and food assistance and activation of those benefits. In Texas, Medicaid is mostly a children's health insurance program. Only low income children, the elderly and new moms are covered by Medicaid in this state. There is also a $18 million increase over the next two years for the state's Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) services which assists families with children up to 36 months who have developmental delays, disabilities or certain medical diagnoses that may impact development. A $60 million rider was put in to cover Texas' costs of entering a federal summer lunch program in 2027. The 2023 program would give qualifying parents $120 over the summer months to help pay for lunches when school is out of session. More than 30 states now participate in the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program which also goes by the name Sun Bucks. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick championed the passage of Senate Bill 5, which creates the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, to study dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and other brain conditions. Modeled after Texas' cancer institute, the measure received bipartisan support. Abbott has signed the bill but the measure now goes before the voters to approve whether $3 billion in general revenue can be used to fund the project. The Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General's office investigates health care and benefit fraud. This year, a handful of bills were passed to help streamline investigations by the office and update salary classifications for OIG officers to those of other Texas law enforcement officers, improving recruiting. This comes as the office has been instrumental in identifying fraud within some of the state's health benefits systems, leading to firings of some agency employees.
