‘Buy Canadian’ focus put in the spotlight at Elliot Lake council meeting

City council in Elliot Lake is proceeding with a contract that partially involves buying from a U.S.-based firm.

Meeting Monday night, Elliot Lake city council had a lengthy discussion about using an American company to supply materials for an upcoming project.

Following community input in 2024, council was presented with options for the replacement of a sunshade at West Park Pavilion.

Karilynn Kluke, director of the recreation and culture department, explained the Canoe Procurement Program, a Canadian buying group aligned with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Under that program, an American company, Poligon, would supply the materials for the sunshade, while Ontario-based ABC Recreation Ltd. would assemble the structure.

But some on council said they’d like a Canada-only option.

“Myself, I would have liked to see more local interest from more local contractors,” said Coun. Merrill Seidel.

“What’s going on south of the border is a reality and we have to be aware of it,” said Coun. Norman Mann.

“Is there any opportunity for provincial or local options?”

One issue raised was the fact the city wants the project finished within three months, in time to celebrate its 70th anniversary.

But people such as local resident Richard Montegani reminded council about the importance of buying local.

“There’s always advertising to buy local, support your local businesses and some of these councillors are local businessmen,” Montegani said.

“It’s hypocritical to me that they would promote buying local, and then they go to the States to get something that we could probably have bought locally.”

Ultimately, council voted in favour of the proposal, at a cost of $205,000. That doesn’t include the cost of a concrete pad, rebar or engineering of the pad.

Councillors decided they would aim to hire a local contractor to pour the concrete.

Montegani said he was “disappointed” and “embarrassed” by the decision, adding that the cost of the tariffs wasn’t added into the equation.

Price hasn’t changed

Elliot Lake CAO Rob DeBartoli said he has been told the price has not changed, at least not for now.

“Within our policies for purchasing, if the product price was suddenly to shoot up, and drove the price of the project up more than 10 per cent, we would definitely have to go back to council to seek their approval to continue on with the purchase,” DeBartoli said.

Danny Whalen, president of the Federation of Northern Municipalities, said many municipalities are caught in the middle of the U.S./Canada trade war and face uncertainty over various projects.

“Many of them have already made some of their request for quotes,” Whalen said.

“So any that, have received quotes say, for a piece of equipment from an American corporation, and they budgeted $250,000, that’s going to come in a year effectively (at a) higher price right now.”

Whalen added he recommends municipalities review their own purchasing policy documents, how they award their bid tenders, what their qualifications for tender are, and see where they can put the emphasis on Canadian companies.