As Toronto city council revs up its plan to focus municipal money on local products and services, Toronto city manager Paul Johnson is warning that a complete ban on buying services or goods from the U.S. isn’t the way to go.
“To do that as a blanket statement would not be prudent for the City of Toronto,” he said at Wednesday’s council meeting, stressing that when it comes to procurement, “there’s a lot of complexity to the issue.”
Toronto has been eager to hop on a national campaign to “Buy Canadian” in the face of the economic threats posed by U.S. tariffs, now paused for a month.
Council’s now hoping that enthusiasm is picked up by Toronto businesses and residents as well, opting to unanimously pass a motion on Wednesday instructing Johnson to create a “buy Canadian, buy local” campaign encouraging city residents and businesses to spend their money inside the country.
Included in that motion is an amendment, which also passed unanimously, that requests that the federal government develop a recognizable label that will go on all Canadian products.
While presenting that amendment, Coun. Anthony Perruzza paused to thank U.S. President Donald Trump for helping the city find its “Canadianismo again.”
“How amazing is that?” he said.
How much of Toronto’s money goes to the U.S.?
The moves are in step with a plan unveiled by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow earlier in the week, where she said the city would look over its own procurement policies and contracts to identify avoidable spending in the U.S.
“We do have a $78-billion budget … It matters where we buy,” she said at the time.
Speaking Wednesday, Johnson offered clarity on how much money the city actually spends on contracts with U.S. manufacturers and service providers.
“We’re working through some of this, I don’t have a number I can say with confidence,” he said.
“It’s less than 10 per cent of our procurement.”
Council also responded on Wednesday to Trump’s repeated threats and suggestions that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.
All councillors agreed that city council should “affirm that Toronto, as Canada’s largest city, opposes any proposal for Canada to join the United States of America” — a statement that will now be forwarded to all Toronto Members of Parliament.
Asked in the Oval Office whether Canada could do anything that would pause tariffs, as has happened with Mexico, U.S. President Donald Trump repeated comments on wanting Canada to become the 51st state. Trump was speaking ahead of a planned call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at 3 p.m.