There were alternate directors for Areas A, D and F at the table and vice-chair Justine Gabias at the helm for the March 13 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board meeting. She brought forward a lengthy motion, introduced with the acronym BRAT: for "border response to American tariffs," which received board support.
"I love a good acronym" Gabias chuckled as she credited alternate Area A director Christine Alexander for coming up with the nickname.
Actions planned
In that motion, the regional government “affirms and signals the Sunshine Coast Regional District's support of the 'Team Canada' approach, which seeks to align local, provincial, and national priorities to counter foreign policies designed to harm the Canadian economy."
The motion also directed staff to conduct a “high-level environmental scan that identifies potential impacts of tariffs on the organization, and report back as soon as possible with their findings and with immediate and long-term strategies that would support the Team Canada approach."
In debate on the matter Gibsons area director Silas White queried the impacts of that request on staff capacity and current year workplans. He asked, “who would do [the scan] and how would they go about doing it."
Chief administrative officer Tina Perreault responded that she did not see the ask as “a significant undertaking” noting that the senior management and procurement teams were already ”keeping an eye on the ever changing targets." She stated that in her view, “It will be helpful to provide a staff report publicly to inform the community on what we can actually do."
The motion also called on the board chair and vice-chair to “reach out to the District of Sechelt, the Town of Gibsons, the shíshálh Nation Government District, SD46, Sunshine Coast Tourism, Sechelt Downtown Business Association and Sunshine Coast Chamber of Commerce, the MLA, and the MP to set up a meeting to explore opportunities for collaboration, including initiating and promoting a new targeted Buy Local / Buy Canadian campaign in response to tariffs."
The motion's final clause directed that following those efforts, there is to be a “report back” to the board on the outcomes of those discussions. No timeline for that reporting was set.
