Gaetan Royer, chair of the Sunshine Coast Chamber of Commerce, says a virtual town-hall meeting this Friday evening was organized to help business owners on the Coast navigate the 25 per cent trade tariffs announced by US president Donald Trump on March 4.
“I see what's happening in between Canada and the U.S. as a COVID moment for business – this is urgent,” said Royer. “This impacts everybody. And every business, whether they know it today or not, may be impacted in a big way. Twenty-five per cent is huge.”
Royer said most businesses operate on a net profit of somewhere between 15 and 20 per cent, so it’s going to be very difficult for many to survive if faced with a 25 per cent tariff. He added, this is why it’s so important that the chamber begin to measure what the impact will be to businesses across the Coast.
He noted there are likely some business owners who attend who have already had an order cancelled and in response, have done some research.
“I think this Friday, we're going to discover that there are impacts that nobody's thought about yet,” said Royer. “It's like measuring the extent of the problem. It's a listening exercise. We want to hear from the business community what they've researched and what kind of solutions they're thinking about, and what assistance they're going to need. And then we're going to use that to reach out to governments and nonprofit agencies and others to try to find ways to mitigate the impact.”
He said when a business holds a sale, it typically includes a five-to-10 per cent discount for a limited period. Royer added even those smaller discounts aren’t sustainable for longer periods, when businesses today are working with smaller profit margins.
“So, these are the kind of numbers that we're looking at. When you negotiate with a supplier, you're going to negotiate and be happy with a two percent discount on your volume purchase of a certain good. 25 pr cent is, it's a quarter. It's a huge number.”
Royer said for now, this town hall meeting is focused on the business community, because the chamber needs more time to gather information before hosting a broader discussion.
“For now, I think that we genuinely want to know how big the problem is and we want to hear from people at the grassroots, how they think we should address this issue. And we want to make sure that we provide as much assistance to the business community as possible,” he said.
As of Wednesday, March 5, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in talks with Trump in an attempt to lower the tariffs or halt the tariffs all together. The results of those meetings were expected to be announced after Coast Reporter’s press deadline. This virtual meeting will be held on Microsoft Teams. If joining on a phone or tablet, you may need to download the Teams app beforehand.
The virtual town hall meeting runs from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Friday, March 7. For more information on how to join the meeting, visit sunshinecoastchamber.ca or see the ad in the March 7 edition of Coast Reporter and scan the code to join.
