How municipalities can move faster with their tariff responses
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration; not a photograph of the reported event.
One of my favourite movie lives from the Fast & Furious action films is: “We’re family. We got a problem, we deal with it together.”
Tariffs are forcing each municipality to examine how they do business and find new ways to support their communities. We have a unique opportunity to work as a country to remove barriers and find new trade pathways.
Throughout the world the conversation is turning to speed to market – whether it be the European Union or Canada, every country is looking at how to rearrange trade at home and abroad.
Interprovincial trade makes up approximately 20% of Canada’s GDP, which equates to over $500 billion. Sixty percent of Canada’s essential infrastructure is maintained by the municipalities. Annual public procurement is $300 billion, so each 1% savings equates to $3 billion.
These are very clear and transparent municipal areas that we can adapt to the new tariffs and make changes.
On the municipal level, City Hall controls four levers that are crucial at increasing our daily speed to national marketplaces.
- Fast-tracking of permits: for years Canadians have struggled with building regulations by municipality. Now is the time to standardize regulations across the country: use one intake and perform concurrent reviews while working on logistical standards to eliminate complex rules for products and services.
- Align freight rules: Coordinate truck routes, oversize permits, signage and delivery windows. We can make shipping more efficient with fewer delays and reduced friction. Increased lane counts and improved interchange designs reduce queuing at ramps and junctions, which in turn lowers the probability of cascading delays for scheduled shipments. For carriers, this translates into shorter trip cycles and more consistent driver hours-of-service planning.
- Open procurement within the country: use common specifications, e-bidding and equivalent credentials to expand the markets to all potential Canadian bidders.
- Protect the last kilometre: Track freight delays due to construction and make changes to reduce delay with concepts such as off-rush hour construction. Ensure road and bridge repair alongside normal winter maintenance.
Infrastructure challenges must be identified upfront and prioritized. As our infrastructure ages we must continue to repair and replace it in priority to our most important trade projects within the country.
New highways, expanded rail, restricted highway travel hours and logistics strategies all help to make us an easier country to trade with and within.
Paul Micucci is a Mississauga business owner and founder of the Meadowvale Business Association.
