Windsor mayor and chair of the Border Mayors Alliance, Drew Dilkens, says nothing is off the table when it comes to dealing with tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Saturday, Trump signed an executive order imposing imposing 25 per cent tariffs across the board, with the exception of energy, which will be hit with a 10 per cent tariff, effective Tuesday.
Prime Minster Justin Trudeau promised Canada would hit back by slapping 25 per cent tariffs on $155 billion worth of American goods in retaliation.
Dilkens says city council will look at measures such as buy Canadian procurement policy, and thinks if other municipalities followed suit it would have an impact.
"We're going to do all that we can," he said. "I would say that nothing is off the table. I'm glad to see our federal government moving forward with retaliatory tariffs, the premier pulling U.S. product from the shelves at the LCBO. We're going to do all that we can on the municipal front to send a signal as well, but at the end of the day the goal here is to get this gone. We want these tariffs gone and I'm hopeful that this will be a short lived initiative."
Industry analysts say the tariffs have the potential to halt the automotive industry within a week or two of being implemented.
Dilkens says Windsor-Essex would be the first to be hit and the hardest.
"We will need support from the provincial and federal governments to help people get through if this tariff lasts for any length of time," he said. "We have to be here to support one another. I agree this could have an impact on the auto industry in the short term, but you know what, bright minds have to prevail here. There has to be an off-ramp where everyone looks at this and says 'okay, this doesn't make sense for Canadians, it doesn't make sense for Americans'."
He says Canadians won't be the only ones to feel the pain of these tariffs, but Americans will as well.
"American jobs will be lost as a result of this particular decision by the president," Dilkens said. "So if Trump wants this tariff tax, he's got this tariff tax, but it's going to be a fight and Canadians are not just going to sit back and be passive little patsy's in this trade war. We're going to be actively involved making sure that are American friends understand what their president is doing to them."
Windsor city council is next scheduled to meet on Monday Feb. 10.