Waterloo Region’s tech sector prepares for tariffs, despite delay

The tech sector says tariffs could have a ripple effect in their supply chain. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte has that story.

Tech and Waterloo Region go hand-in-hand, and those hands have been spared from being slapped with some tariffs – for now.

The temporary truce in the impending trade war between Canada and the United States offers a sigh of relief, but it still has Waterloo Region’s tech sector preparing for the worst.

Key players in the local tech ecosystem are sizing up how the sector and startups could be impacted, including tech hub Communitech’s interim CEO Jennifer Gruber.

“We do know it [would] have an impact, but we don’t know how far reaching that will be,” said Gruber.

Tech and tariffs is a bit of a grey area and figuring out how the industry would be impacted is up in the air.

“As we understand it, software is not being included in the list of things that are targeted because it adds an intangible asset,” said Gruber.

It could still have ripple affects in the supply chain.

“There may be things where there’s interconnected parts and a small disruption in supply chain for auto, for example, that depends on a piece of software that is now delivered in Waterloo,” Gruber said.

Gruber says medical technology and hardware would be the most impacted and often, their market is the U.S. because it’s difficult to sell in the Canadian market.

Finding funding for startups could get tougher because of overall economic uncertainty.

Gruber feels it shouldn’t be up to the tech sector alone to come up with solutions.

“It’s time for government stakeholders to think creatively how we might support these tech companies in a way that keeps them Canadian, keeps them in the market and keeps them growing,” said Gruber.

Communitech also made a call out to the tech community on Monday asking local and national partners to fill out a form and come up with ideas that could help with the evolving situation. They announced a series of webinars as well as a tariff tracker group chat that provides updates.

It comes as there is a general sense of unease in terms of whether this could mean layoffs in the sector, especially with the U.S. being the largest trading partner.

“A lot of our companies go there to grow their market, 74 per cent of venture capital comes in from the U.S. so there will be a long lasting impact,” said Gruber, referring to the potential impact if tariffs come in 30 days. “We’re just waiting in the coming weeks and months to see what that might be.”