As almost all of North America sits in a tariff time out, Stratford’s mayor is making sure not to waste a good crisis.
Martin Ritsma held a press conference at his office Wednesday afternoon, talking about what he and other city leaders have been discussing since the threatened tariffs from US President Donald Trump were halted for 30 days following a deal brokered between the two countries. It was an alarm bell that Ritsma had previously sounded, and this time he came with a message for the people of Stratford.
“We met with individuals from across the community and shared with them the importance that we know that they provide for our economy, whether it's manufacturing or other businesses,” he said. “We talked about what a proposed tariff of 25 per cent would do to tourism when people have less money to spend, whether they’re Canadian or American – it’s the tourism piece that usually goes sideways first.”
The message was that Stratford is preparing behind the scenes for a worst-case scenario when the pause on Trump’s proposed tariffs ends in a few weeks. Ritsma talked about getting a system in place to assist people who get laid off in navigating the social assistance process, while also talking about the steps he and other civic leaders are taking to advocate for Stratford at the provincial and federal levels.
Asked about what specific steps the city is looking at to mitigate the short and long term effects of tariffs, Ritsma indicated that was going to depend on what kind of assistance they would see flowing into the city from higher levels of government.
“What dollars are going to flow from the federal government and how do we set you up to make sure your company’s in line to receive those dollars,” he said. “The federal government has a package similar to the COVID one to support businesses and individuals, and the province has laid out a $22 billion stimulus package. When you look at investing in Stratford, we have to look at how we retain individuals so that they fit into the queue if layoffs are in place. People need to eat, so how do we ensure that? And if people are going to be retrained locally, it will depend on what we’re successful at. As I understand it, there would be more dollars with regards to infrastructure or building.”
To assist with the anticipated influx of people looking for help with social services, Ritsma said it might be a matter of redirecting some city staff to help out, while also potentially recalling retired employees back into the fold to pitch in for however long they’re needed. He was also asked about whether or not the possibility of tariffs might spur a conversation about reopening budget talks.
“If tariffs come into play, it’s going to impact all residents and their abilities to provide for themselves and their family, so when I look at it we know there are three components (to the budget),” he said. “We have the capital component, the operating and the expansion. I’ve talked about this and maybe we can go back to this – we need to focus on the things that we are in control of, and we’re still in control of the budget. Maybe we need to pause for a moment on the expansion piece … for maybe 6-8 months with regards to those new jobs because we don’t know the full impact if there was a tariff imposed on the activities in those departments. Sometimes you have to take away the wants. You have the needs and you have to be responsible that you set a tax levy that residents can afford.”
With the city’s economic pillars including manufacturing, agribusinesses and tourism, Ritsma didn’t pull punches in saying if those three get hit hard then no part of our local economy will be left unscathed.
“How hard that impact will be is tough to measure, but our area has an abnormally low unemployment rate to a point where it’s almost zero,” he said. “Those that aren’t employed can’t fill the jobs that are vacant because of their skill set, so if we move from three per cent to 3.35 or something of that nature … they’re not spending that money because it’s a circular economy and it impacts everything that we do in our municipality.”
Being good neighbours with the United States is one thing, but Ritsma is hoping this will teach Canada on the whole and Stratford specifically to learn from being overly dependent on that relationship.
“We’re looking at leveraging our partnerships less with the US and more with other countries,” he said. “I’ve had conversations with adjacent municipalities already, and I’ll be talking to one Friday morning about precisely that. We have to learn from this so that we don’t put ourselves back in this position where we’re really quite vulnerable.”