MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - How potential U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods might affect Mountain View County remains largely unknown at this time, council heard at the Feb. 12 council meeting.
The new U.S. administration has proposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, perhaps in the 25 per cent range, that could come into effect next month.
Tariffs have already been announced for steel and aluminum starting in March.
“If and when (tariffs) do come in, Calgary is anticipated to be one of the bigger cities that are going to be impacted in Canada,” said reeve Angela Aalbers.
She asked chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes, “Do we have a lot of exposure to what is going on right now in the U.S.?”
Holmes replied, “I think the large answer is we all have exposure. The individual impacts on the municipalities is undetermined because it is such a moving target. We haven’t been able to really determine how we will be affected.
“Ryan (Morrison, director of operations) and I did have a chat about equipment and as he mentioned we have our orders placed, but we are also aware that if our vendors get hit with tariffs before the equipment arrives, they are going to find a way to pass that one to us.
“So even through we’ve placed our orders, we are not going to be immune to it. With the equipment manufacturing it’s fairly global, as I understand it, so it’s not like every piece of equipment could be impacted. So it just depends on the specifics of the tariff order and how we end up.”
At this point the county “hasn’t done any financial analysis because we don’t have enough certainty to do that,” he said.
Reeve Albers said, “This is just one other thing that has to be taken into consideration, in addition to all of the potential provincial changes with the assessment model review and everything else that they are going to be doing.
“We can be certain if the province is going to be hurting for funding, we are going to be hurting for funding as well. We are looking forward to the proposed 2026 proposed budget.”
The Feb. 12 council meeting was held in person and online, with Coun. Peggy Johnson not in attendance.
