The president of the Ponoka & District Chamber of Commerce is thankful that trade tensions have eased somewhat between Canada and the U.S.
On the weekend U.S. President Trump signed an order to impose 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on Canadian imports, with a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy. Trump has since agreed to delay the tariffs against Canada for at least 30 days.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced his own retaliatory list of U.S. items that would be taxed by 25 per cent.
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"A 25 per cent tariff coming from the U.S. to us would greatly impact the Canadian economy and obviously ours," said Ponoka Chamber President Sherry Gummow, who is also a local business owner. "Just very thankful that we've got a breathing period here and hopefully a cooling-off period."
Gummow says business owners have been busy over the past couple of weeks trying to determine how a trade war between Canada and the U.S. would impact their operations.
She notes that Ponoka businesses are promoting buying local in response to threats of U.S. tariffs.
"The Chamber of Commerce has always promoted buy local," noted Gummow. "Local isn't just our own town. Local for me is Lacombe, it's Red Deer, it's Bashaw. It's not Amazon."
Gummow says her heart breaks every time she sees an Amazon package on someone's front step, as those are dollars that could have supported the local economy.
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