Public school board adopting ‘buy Canadian’ policy

The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) is in the process of revising its procurement policy to ensure it is in line with the province’s “buy Canadian” edict.

The Committee of the Whole was presented with a report from the Police Working Group at last week’s meeting that included new language saying: “The WRDSB will endeavour to support Canadian businesses, where permissible by legislation and within fiscal constraints.”

This all stems from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and the response from Premier Doug Ford who has taken a hard line stance with the Trump administration.

At the time, Ford gave orders to Ontario’s Management Board of Cabinet to come up with a “buy Canadian” Procurement Restriction Policy, designed to bolster Canadian businesses amid the trade war.

At last week’s meeting, Superintendent of Business Services, Nick Landry, told the committee that WRDSB had received a memo from the Ministry of Education that specified what criteria were considered in defining a “U.S. supplier.” It also said that any existing contracts with American companies must be honoured.

He said after a review, it was determined WRDSB has very few contracts with U.S. suppliers.

In the end, the committee chose to hand the report back to the Policy Working Group to see if any areas of the new procurement policy needed to be strengthened and to ensure all the i’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed.

The Committee of the Whole is expected to see the revised document at a meeting in May.

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