Canadian ‘frontline’ border towns already feeling tariff pain, ask for government help | Globalnews.ca
A group of mayors from Canadian border towns issued a plea for help to upper levels of government on Friday as businesses in their communities suffer through the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and anti-Canadian rhetoric.
“We need the federal government to fully understand and look to different sectors to assist them through the tariffs that will be coming,” Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said during a press conference organized by the Frontier Duty Free Association.
“We’re feeling the pain and we’re on the front line,” Bradley said of his city, which shares a border with Michigan. “That’s just the reality of being a border city. There are many joys to being a border city. But there’s also a lot of pain on occasion when issues beyond our control happen.”
Over the past few months, Trump has issued threats of tariffs while also making comments about Canada becoming America’s 51st state and suggesting our prime minister would become a governor. This has prompted a wave of Canadian nationalism with calls for people to shop local and to cancel visits and vacations across the border.
The group, which included mayors from B.C., Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, say this has caused a decrease in the number of people heading through their communities. The mayors say this has affected the tourism industry, including restaurants and duty-free shops.
“Anything that impedes the flow of people impacts duty-free stores on both sides of the border,” Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop said. “It affects the restaurants, the hospitality industry, tourism. Niagara Falls, Ont. has about three to four million Americans come to visit each year, and that’s in jeopardy.
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“There will be economic impacts there and we’re going to feel the same thing here, because people on the other side of the border will start losing their jobs as well.”
Many of the mayors noted that they see their American cousins on a regular basis and that despite the sour relations between the federal governments, things are more cordial on a local level.
“That becomes more and more challenging as this tariff war continues, or the uncertainty of it continues, because personal feelings start to take over and that impedes the flow of people,” Redekop said.
There are similar sentiments out east as well, as things remain neighbourly between the people of St. Stephen, N.B., and those living across the border in Calais, ME.
“We’re not seeing any hostility but there’s a fear of it,” St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern offered.
He said that he regularly talks to Calais’ mayor, who comes across regularly to eat at her favourite restaurant.
“She is worried about her license plate, so that fear is there,” said MacEachern.
But the New Brunswick mayor noted that the two sides are cordial.
“There’s not any hostility. The love is still there,” he explained. “It’s mostly confused citizens trying to get through this new issue that we’re dealing with.”
Redekop also noted that there is confusion on both sides of the border as to what Trump is working toward with his tariff threats.
“You have to remember that there are many, many Americans that are as baffled by what’s coming out of Washington as Canadians,” he said. “And they’re not happy about it because the same impacts that we’re feeling are being felt by businesses and people across the river or the border.”
The mayors are hoping the upper levels of government will be there to support stores along the border that are still looking to recover from travel restrictions during the COVID era.
“We know that they have set aside money at provincial levels, federal levels for relief, for businesses that are going to be impacted by the tariffs and everything we’re experiencing so I hope that they act quickly and smartly,” Woodstock, N.B. Mayor Trina Jones said.
While many called on the federal government for assistance, Gary Zalepa, who serves as mayor in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., believes there are other ways they can help as well.
“The federal and provincial governments need to immediately reduce interprovincial trade barriers, specifically in the agricultural sector, on products of agriculture,” he said.
“Secondly, we would recommend a targeted financial assistance for impacted businesses that are dealing with rising input costs due to tariffs. We need incentives for those businesses to start exploring non-U.S. supply chains for those input essentials, such as cans and bottles and packaging containers.”
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