‘Huge impact to our communities’: Border mayors push for government help amid trade war

Canada’s border town mayors are meeting regularly to find ways to ease the impacts of tariffs.

With a little over a week before 25 per cent tariffs are expected to be implemented on all Canadian goods by U.S. President Donald Trump, mayors in border towns like St. Stephen, N.B., are paying close attention to all the noise.

The Border Mayors Alliance, a group of Canadian border town mayors created to support one another amid the tariff threat, are meeting multiple times a week to discuss how the trade war is impacting their communities.

“We need the federal government to fully understand, as they look to different sectors, to assist them through the tariffs that will be coming, that duty-free stores and border communities, and specifically need direct support to deal with what’s happening here,” says Sarnia, Ont., Mayor Mike Bradley.

The crossing between St. Stephen and Calais, Maine, is among the busiest land crossing in Atlantic Canada. Mayor Allan MacEachern admits he is feeling the weight of the trade war already as businesses in his community deal with the uncertainties of what may be coming.

He says fears among those in the business community are already being seen with cross-border travel taking a dip since the tariff talk began.

“Our communities rely on the movement of people and product,” says MacEachern. “And when we don’t have people and product move across our borders, we’re not a border community like we are normally. We miss all that movement of people and that’s a huge impact to our communities.”

With the tourism season coming up, MacEachern says the town will have to focus their marketing further into Canada, similar to how they did in the pandemic, if the trade war persists.

He says the Border Mayors Alliance will continue to meet regularly to gain strength as a group in ensuring to their provincial and federal counterparts what supports are needed for area businesses.

MacEachern says he supports the idea of supporting Canadian where possible at this time, but notes in border towns like his, it’s not a simple task to “cut out” anything American.

“We’re looking them right in the eye,” MacEachern says of his counterparts in Calais. “We’re related to them, they’re our colleagues, they’re our friends, they’re our cousins and so we’re literally in the mix. So, we’re not far enough away to when this tariff wars going on that we’re not right in the middle of it.”

When asked whether he’s worried the federal election campaign will impact the ongoing tariff negotiations, MacEachern says it’s something that cannot be put on the back burner with tariffs set to go into effect April 2.

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on trading partners are set to take effect on April 2, a day he has proclaimed as “Liberation Day” for American trade. CTV News will have extensive coverage across all platforms:

• CTVNews.ca will have in-depth coverage, real-time updates, and expert analysis on what the tariffs will mean for Canadians.
• CP24.com will report on any developments out of Queen’s Park and what the tariffs means for the people of the GTHA.
• BNNBloomberg.ca will explain what this means for the business community, investors, and the market.