Brockville council agrees to reconsider ‘Canada First’ wording in new procurement policy

At their regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, Brockville City Council discussed Mayor Wren’s motion to direct staff to review and recommend amendments to the City of Brockville’s procurement policy to establish a “Canada First” preference in the procurement of goods and services in light of the looming U.S. tariff threats. 

Once the motion was introduced, Councillor Wales was quick to speak up and propose an amendment to the verbiage, instead suggesting they change “Canada First” to “Canada Preferred” in the procurement policy. Wales explained, “ I just don’t really want to mirror some of the languages that are being used by our neighbour to the south, much as we appreciate their friendship and hope for their continued friendship in the future. I just don’t really want to engage in the whole country first rhetoric.” 
 
Receiving approving nods from other councillors in the chambers, Wales continued, “I know that there’s a couple of Canadian politicians running around using some of that language as well, and I wouldn’t want us to be seen to be endorsing that specific language either. So anyway, I just hope we can recognize…the same sentiment, but with slightly different wording.”

Mayor Wren responded positively to Councillor Wales’ suggestion, saying “I’m certainly not at all offended that you had to suggest that. The motion is actually an excerpt. As you know, I’ve been working with the Border Mayors Alliance and so this language has been used by a number of municipalities, but you make a very strong point.”

Mayor Wren mentioned his efforts in recent weeks to touch base with his contacts within Brockville’s manufacturing sector. “I had a call yesterday with Jay Webb, the president of Trillium, and 70 per cent of the products they produce here in Brockville go to the United States. So we’ve got some very, very challenging times ahead.

”And as I’ve been saying, there are very few tools in the toolbox other than advocacy and doing things like this to make sure that public dollars are spent within Canada as much as possible.”

Councillor Deery also shared his support for Councillor Wales’ amendment to the phrasing, stating “I don’t want us to appear to be reactive. The one thing I’m concerned about is that we’re sort of, as Councillor Wales said, following suit, but not in the right way…I don’t want to be sitting here in front of my taxpayer saying that we had to pay double because we had a preference for a Canadian company. We have to be focused on what makes sense for the city. So I definitely love the new wording.“

Councillor Kalivas also voiced his support for Mayor Wren’s motion and the new amendment, telling council, “I’m certainly in favour of the wording change. I think that’s important to do and I will be interested to see how the report comes back from the staff because I certainly think that all Canadians should be doing this. So there’s no doubt in my mind [it’s] the right approach, I just want to make sure that we’re able to do it legally. I think we’re going to need some more help from the province.”
 
Kalivas continued, “We watch as an industry chooses between here and across the river because they gave them five years of no taxes. We’re not allowed to do that. There are a lot of things that we’re not allowed to do we better start thinking about and maybe we should be allowed to do. So I’ll wait for that, but I think we’ve got some work to do, and it’s a real eye-opener of what’s happened here in the last few months.”

Mayor Wren wrapped up the conversation by reminding council that they all share the same sentiment and ambitions, “I know our hearts are all united in wanting to stand behind our employment, our employers and our manufacturing sector to the extent we can. This motion is simply asking staff to bring us information on what our options are.”

All councillors unanimously approved Councillor Wales’ amendment to change the language to “Canada preferred approach”. The updated procurement policy will be brought back to council during their March meeting.