Essex County Council is moving ahead with a "Buy Canadian" policy.
Council met Wednesday night to discuss a Buy Canadian Procurement Strategy, where approval was given to prioritize the purchase of Canadian goods and services when possible, similar to many municipalities across the country.
The county has set some limitations to ensure that no international trade agreements are broken.
This strategy prioritizes Canadian vendors for county purchases that fall below the key trade agreement thresholds, which is just over $350,000 for goods and services, and $8.8-million for construction - while still allowing exceptions where needed, such as when no Canadian suppliers are available.
In the event a supplier's costs are impacted by tariffs, the business will have to provide notice and documentation to the county.
Melissa Ryan, Director of Financial Services with the County of Essex, says U.S. companies would be excluded from bidding under the trade agreement thresholds.
"I can say that at the county we did do a scan, and we don't typically find that U.S. bidders are bidding on our construction projects. Where we are finding that we do business with them would be on IT software, IT hardware, and some pieces of the ambulance. But those are situations where there's no other Canadian options available."
Tecumseh mayor Gary McNamara says everyone has noticed the shift in supporting and buying Canadian.
"We need to send a message to our friends in Washington that we're serious about taking care of business, and I'm an advocate that sometimes charity starts at home, so we've got to take care of the home front."
Lakeshore's deputy mayor Kirk Walstedt says he doesn't want anything to fall on the taxpayers due to this policy.
"There's a close to zero per cent chance of that happening, I guess just based on what we buy and procure mainly. But if you're getting into tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars that we're going to spread over our tax base because of this then I have concerns about it."
Council also approved a motion put forward by Kingsville mayor Dennis Rogers to look at targeted municipal tax deferrals for Canadian businesses impacted by tariffs.
New provincial guidelines have been put into place which limits participation of certain U.S. businesses in provincial procurement, specifically impacting hospitals, school boards, and post-secondary institutions. It doesn't directly apply to municipalities.
The report stemmed from a notice of motion in February by LaSalle's deputy mayor, Michael Akpata, in the face of U.S. tariffs.
The procurement policy will now return as a by-law for council's approval at a future meeting.