The City of West 麻豆精选鈥檚 Chief Financial Officer doesn鈥檛 see an immediate need to adjust the municipality鈥檚 purchasing policy in the face of U.S. tariff strife.
At council鈥檚 Tuesday meeting, Warren Everton noted staff have reviewed capital budgets and projects for 2025 and 2026 to assess the risk.
鈥淥verall, we've come out with about seven per cent potential risk, which equates to about $6.7 million if you look at all those projects,鈥� he added. 鈥淎ll that risk would have to materialize before we would be paying that much money out.鈥�
Everton said there is a risk that some projects could go over budget, pointing to two fire truck chassis the city ordered from U.S. firms.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not tariffed,鈥� he explained. 鈥淏ut in the future, with steel and aluminum pricing probably on the upswing because of tariffs, that will filter into those types of builds coming in, in the next few years. So, if we have other fire trucks we have to order they will become more expensive just by default.鈥�
The U.S. applied a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum in early April and followed it up with a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian-made automobiles.
Everton added the city will be taking cues from the province regarding purchasing policy.
鈥淎nd any directives that come down from the province, not unlike when we went through COVID, we waited for the province to obviously dictate what we need to do, but we also kept up on best practices.鈥�
He also said staff will need to pay attention to wording in contracts that the city signs with service and material providers.
鈥淎ny force majure wording is typically for natural disasters,鈥� he told the council. 鈥淏ut some companies are trying to put in wording that has to do with unforeseen market conditions. So it's good to pay attention to that wording and to challenge it because suppliers try to hedge their bids when they're bidding and not take that risk.鈥�
Force majeure refers to a clause that excuses a party from fulfilling contractual obligations due to an unexpected event that is beyond their control.
