Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston is sharing his thoughts on the potential tariffs that have now been postponed 30 days.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced late Monday the tariffs will be paused for "at least 30 days" while Canada appoints a "fentanyl czar" and works with the U.S. to combat drug trafficking and organized crime.
Duties of 10 per cent on energy and 25 per cent on all other Canadian goods were scheduled to go into effect Tuesday.
Before the delay was announced, Johnston noted the 10 per cent tariff on the energy sector would have been felt in Red Deer, with energy being a key driver of the local economy.
He added that the supply chain would have also been impacted, particularly the agriculture sector.
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"I will say the entrepreneurial spirit of people is amazing as they try to figure out either different supply chains or different product offerings or value-added," said Johnston. "But at the same time, anything that you're shipping south of the line now is going to have that price impact and that's going to have an impact on the American consumer and the American markets in general. It's a no-win."
Johnston noted that the city struck up an Economic Development Committee a couple of months ago, which is working on a governance model around economic development messaging.
He said the threat of U.S. tariffs resulted in economic nationalism across the country.
"There's opportunity in there and there's certainly the prospect of valuing our country and our economic health in far greater terms than we have in the past," commented Johnston.
The mayor says he's been in discussions with local business owners.
"The leaders that I've talked to, we need to figure out interconnected trade barriers. We need to figure out what is a good regulatory environment for investment in this country, and we certainly need to understand that our dependence on the United States has to change."
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