Lethbridge community partners launch task force to strengthen local economy against tariffs

The Lethbridge Region Economic Resilience Task Force is developing strategies to support businesses through tariff challenges.

Nine organizations in southern Alberta are coming together to strengthen and diversify the economy of southwest Alberta as American tariffs set in.

The Lethbridge Region Economic Resilience Task Force has been launched to focus on developing strategies to support businesses and ensure they can navigate the challenges imposed by the tariffs.

The task force includes representatives from Economic Development Lethbridge, the Southwest Regional Alliance, Community Futures Lethbridge Region, the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce, the Lethbridge Construction Association, Lethbridge Polytechnic, the SouthGrow Regional Initiative, Tourism Lethbridge and the University of Lethbridge.

“It’s a number of like-minded organizations that are really looking to find solutions for industry in the region, support business and work with our government partners to find a way through this crisis,” said Economic Development Lethbridge CEO Trevor Lewington.

The group will focus on ensuring businesses can adapt to challenges related to tariffs and will advocate for resources and connections.

“We’ve become over-reliant on trade with the United States,” said Peter Casurella, executive director of the SouthGrow Regional Initiative.

“A substantial amount of commodities are sold directly into the United States market; a lot of it is processed here and then sold on to the U.S., too, and we’ve been talking for decades about diversifying our trade and exports and the need to do that. The reality is that it’s harder to do that than it is to do business as usual.”

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce says Lethbridge ranks 10th out of 41 cities to be hit the hardest by tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The chamber says the Lethbridge region exports $2.2 billion annually.

It says 90 per cent of all goods exported from Lethbridge go to the U.S., making up more than 19 per cent of the city’s GDP.

“As we move forward, some of the changes being contemplated by the U.S. government get down to the very minutia of how you fill out your forms as you go across the border and what codes you are using to describe your commodities,” said Lewington.

“Because one code will mean you’re subject to a tariff and another code will mean you’re not, so we want to make sure Lethbridge business has the information it needs to make informed decisions but also actually go through the mechanics of how to get through this situation.”

Lewington says the key goals of the task force include removing interprovincial trade barriers, diversifying global trade and expanding export opportunities while raising the region’s profile on national and international stages and attracting more investment to southwest Alberta.

“There’s estimates that say removing all interprovincial trade barriers will boost GDP and lift the economy by between four and seven per cent, and that’s about as much as we stand to lose by the impact of tariffs,” he said.

Lewington says a similar task force was created during COVID to successfully recover the local economy post-pandemic.