Kiersten Enemark: B.C. needs legislation or regulation requiring public agencies to use the province’s purchasing power to back Canadian business when it needs it most
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Since the U.S. began imposing tariffs of up to 50 per cent on tens of billions of dollars of Canadian goods, unpredictability has become a permanent cost of doing business for B.C. companies. Forestry has been hit hardest: B.C. is Canada’s largest lumber producer, and roughly $6.7 billion in exports to the U.S. in 2024 are now caught up in the new tariffs, on top of decades of softwood lumber duties. The sector was already strained by a worsening wildfire season and more than 20 B.C. mills have closed since 2023.
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Beyond forestry, exporters face disrupted supply chains, investors have a tougher case for putting capital to work in Canada, and businesses are planning around a trading relationship that no longer behaves as it once did. Industry groups also flag a serious risk: even without new tariffs, rising trade tension could push American buyers, especially public-sector ones, toward domestic suppliers, squeezing Canadian companies out of U.S. contracts.
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Sunrise
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Premier David Eby responded with urgency, directing Crown corporations and agencies last year to exclude U.S. suppliers from new contracts wherever possible, and then expanded that to existing contracts, too. It’s the right directive: use the province’s purchasing power to back Canadian business when it needs it most.
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A year-and-a-half later, B.C. still has no legislation, regulation or formal procurement framework requiring public agencies to prioritize Canadian suppliers. What exists is a ministerial directive with no defined criteria for what counts as Canadian and no mechanism to ensure that departments follow through.
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It’s time to turn that directive into policy.
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Ontario passed the Buy Ontario Act in 2025 and issued a directive under it requiring public bodies to prioritize Ontario and Canadian goods and services. Ottawa’s policy took effect in December 2025, awarding points on bids for Canadian content and to Canadian companies. B.C. has announced intentions but has yet to legislate a policy.
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That gap matters because procurement is one of government’s most powerful economic tools, and one of the most underused. The province spends billions a year on goods and services (roughly a third of the budget on health care alone), yet many Canadian innovators find it easier to sell into foreign markets, including the U.S., than into their own province’s health system. For a scaling company, a government contract beats any tax credit: it brings revenue, credibility and a reference customer. When contracts default to foreign vendors instead, the province isn’t only missing a sale. it’s letting the IP, data and long-term economic value leave the country.
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A serious policy would need to do more than exclude American bidders. Today, a company can qualify as local simply by having an office and a few employees in the province, which is a bar too low to show where the real economic value lands. A better standard would look at where decisions are made, where IP is held, and where jobs and investment stay. It should be applied equally to Canadian-controlled firms across provinces so B.C. reinforces a strong national market rather than creating new interprovincial barriers.
