Mayor launches economic task force in an effort to strengthen local economy

Prioritizing ‘Canada first,’ London’s mayor has launched a task force to assist in procuring Canadian goods. CTV’s Reta Ismail reports.

London Mayor Josh Morgan launched an economic task force Wednesday in the latest measure aimed at protecting local jobs and strengthening the economy.

“This is meant to be a small group of people who can quickly receive, process, and pass along information to our federal potential partners who are taking significant leads on what is a rapidly evolving situation of tariffs,” said Morgan.

He said he will lead The London Economic Response Team and it will be co-chaired by Coun. Corrine Rahman, with support from the London Economic Development Corporation and City of London staff.

Morgan added that council has already directed the city to review their procurement policy, “This will involve looking at the way that we procure who we hear from, where there might be some vulnerabilities in our procurement process. Meaning there are things that we can only get from the U.S. So any sort of counter tariffs would impact us greatly.”

In a statement to CTV News, Deputy City Manager of Finance Supports Anna Lisa Barbon said, “At present, the majority of vendors that the City conducts business with are located within Canada. Our current Procurement of Goods and Services Policy has a guiding principle that ‘procurement decisions will be made using a competitive process that is open, transparent, and fair.’”

A number of local anchor institutions have also committed to reviewing their respective procurement policies.

London District Catholic School Board Trustee Matthew Pizzuti has drafted a motion to prioritize purchasing Canadian-made products where feasible.

“There are obviously ministry approved textbooks and software that we can’t really budge on, and if those are coming from America, then that’s totally fine,” said Pizzuti. “I’m talking about more or less the items that we can have sort of discretion on...sporting equipment, the track suits, the chairs, the paint equipment, all that we’re potentially sourcing from the states that are, definitely there are Canadian comparable at cost and quality.”

Thames Valley District School Board said they’ve already been purchasing from Ontario and Canadian companies, when possible, as per the Building Ontario Businesses Initiative Act, 2022 (BOBIA).

Fanshawe College said they have also been following BOBIA but are now pro-actively looking at what they can do to prioritize Canadian vendors.

“We want to make sure that we are diversifying our supply chains, so we want to support our local vendors where possible. And when we do have American suppliers, we want to look at Canadian alternatives,” said Kerrie Lambier, manager of Fanshawe’s Contract Management Office.

In a statement to CTV News, Western University said, “Western currently procures over 85 per cent of our goods from Canadian sources. Last month, we began reviewing all procurement to manage tariff risk and explore opportunities to source even more from Canadian businesses.”

Morgan said The Downtown London, Old East Village, Argyle, Hyde Park, and Hamilton Road Business Improvement Areas have pledged to do the same.

The London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) unveiled additional online resources, including the launch of makeinlondon.ca.

In addition, the LEDC has compiled a list of financing and advisory supports for businesses through financial Crown corporations, and existing supports for affected workers.