The Town of Saugeen Shores has taken the American flag down at its arena in Port Elgin.
A statement from Mayor Luke Charbonneau on social media says, “Because of the ongoing threats by the President of the United States against the economy and sovereignty of Canada, the American flag in the Plex has been taken down.”
Council briefly discussed tensions with the United States at its March 10th meeting.
Councillor Bud Halpin mused, “Maybe we should consider taking the American flag down from our arena,” and also asked if Town staff have considered a buy Canadian procurement policy.
Director of Corporate Services Jim Bundschuh told council, the City of Vaughan passed a motion like that recently and pointed out only two per cent of Vaughan’s companies it deals with have US addresses. He noted Saugeen Shores is probably similar in that. “Most of our purchasing already, is in Canada,” said Bundschuh.
He told council Vaughan was taking a look at the use of invitational procurement, where the City would do a request for proposals by invitation “You select the vendors and they each submit their proposals, ” said Bundschuh.
He added, “I’d like to make note that Canadian purchasing is not always possible or even clear what is truly Canadian. You can look at things like vehicles, software, fire equipment, there’s lots of places where it’s difficult to get our Canadian purchasing.”
Bundschuh said, “Regardless of what we do in our policy, council should be aware that the tariffs are going to have an impact across the board and that’s going to have an impact on the things that we’re buying even if we make no changes to the policy.
He added, “If they have a buy Canadian policy, it could increase the issue and make price increases even greater for the Town. “Typically, you have not seen where we have come back to council asking for budget adjustments, but I just want everyone to be aware that 2025 may be an exception to that rule, where you may be seeing that happening more frequently.”
Staff will come back to council with a report containing recommendations to council for them to debate. It’s expected to come back to council in a couple of weeks.
