Investment capital is sitting on the sidelines with uncertainty around the looming US tariffs expected in the first week of March, Calgary business leaders say.
The City of Calgary administration shared with council its recommendations to help mitigate some of the impact of impending US tariffs. It hosted Calgary Economic Development CEO Brad Parry and Calgary Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Deborah Yedlin to provide their perspectives on how Calgary businesses will be affected. Last week, Mayor Jyoti Gondek indicated they were working on specific actions in advance of the March tariff threat.
Calgary’s Chief Administrative officer David Duckworth outlined six recommendations that covered regular updates to council on supply chain disruptions, assessing procurement policies, collaboration with regional partners, work with business advisory groups, advocate through the Big City Mayors Caucus and evaluating tariffs as a factor when selecting banking and investment services from non-Canadian financial institutions.
“Over the years, we have experienced several events that have led to supply chain disruptions. While each situation has been unique, there are two commonalities that emerge,” Duckworth said.
“First is that Calgary and Calgarians are extremely resilient, and we always roll up our sleeves to do the work needed to best serve our city and community. The second is that as a city, we have learned valuable lessons from previous challenges and have developed mitigation strategies to prepare for future supply chain challenges, including tariffs.”
Duckworth said that 95 per cent of all City of Calgary contracts are with Canadian and non-American suppliers. Still, Duckworth said that they want to adjust their processes to minimize tariff impacts.
He added that some projects, like the Event Centre, are already sourcing aluminum and steel from other markets, including from within Canada. They’re using a tariff estimator tool to predict which city contracts are vulnerable. They’re also monitoring foreign exchange risk and awarding contracts to multiple service providers to limit supply chain impact.
Waiting to make investment decisions: Yedlin
Yedlin said she’s hearing from companies that dollars are sitting on the sidelines.
“Big companies and small companies are waiting to make investment decisions, to carry forward, to commit capital, and investors are also standing on the sidelines because they’re concerned about the impact the tariffs will have on various sectors and various businesses,” she said.
“This is something that we’re seeing across all sizes and sectors. We’re very concerned.”
Yedlin said she’d like to see short-term business support to improve Calgary’s competitiveness, market access, and even taxation and regulatory efficiency.
“We must accelerate the development of meaningful measures aimed at increasing economic growth and productivity, and that means thinking about trade, enabling infrastructure and economic corridors, including the prairie economic gateway, looking at rail, aviation, ports and pipes,” she said.
Parry said that there’s no crystal ball, and there’s a lot of conjecture out there.
“To come in and say exactly what the impact is going to be, we truly can’t tell you that. What we can tell you, though, is, as Deb said, it’s no better time than now to invest in the city and invest in ourselves,” he said.
“There will be a major impact if these tariffs go through. But we don’t know how long they will be and what the depth will be.”
Parry said this is about a long-term view of where Calgary is going in the future. He said they won’t replace 400 million consumers overnight.
“We have to think the long term. This is not about tomorrow. This is not about next week. This is about the long term. How do we start to position ourselves, so we don’t have a reliance on simply one market,” he said.
Calgary city councillors unanimously approved the recommendations.
