Buying Canadian: Recent Developments In Canadian Public Procurement

Canada is currently facing an erratic and expansive trade disruption with its closest trading partner. The first executive order signed by the President of the United States on Feb. 1, 2025, set out a blanket tariff rate of 10 per cent on all imports from Mexico and Canada. The President has since imposed higher rates on certain goods, including a 25 per cent rate on non-CUSMA compliant Canadian vehicles and on steel and aluminium products. Following this latest imposition, tariffs have been paused, altered, and expanded to encompass most of the world's economies and several countries, including Canada, have imposed their own tariffs on the U.S.

Against this rapidly fluctuating economic backdrop, Canada's federal, provincial and municipal governments have signalled key policy shifts, targeting reductions on barriers to internal trade and shifting public sector procurement priorities and procedures to an approach favouring Canadian suppliers. These policy shifts