SUDBURY - In the midst of a broader push to buy Canadian in response to U.S. tariffs, it’s unclear whether a U.S. company will be hired to manage Greater Sudbury’s downtown event centre.
Last year, two U.S.-headquartered companies prequalified to manage the council-approved municipal centre, which is currently in the planning stages.
A request for proposal for event centre management services opened on Feb. 11 and will close on March 17. Both U.S.-headquartered companies, including ASM Global (California) and Global Spectrum Facility Management (Colorado) are listed as plan takers.
Last month, Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc flagged the pre-qualified companies as a problem, telling Sudbury.com, “we definitely can’t be supporting a venue operator from America.”
During a city council meeting last month, Mayor Paul Lefebvre introduced a successful motion for the city to advocate with federal and provincial governments to allow municipalities greater leeway in their ability to prioritize the purchase of products, supplies and materials from countries other than the United States.
Trade arrangements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union can prohibit nation-first purchasing practices.
The Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and The Islands took a more decisive action on March 5, passing a motion to purchase Canadian “when possible and restricting its purchases of U.S. goods,” to promote a “Buy Canadian” policy and “encourage the other municipalities and levels of government to limit the purchase of goods produced in the United States until such time as the tariffs are removed.”
On March 4, Premier Doug Ford announced a ban on U.S.-based companies from bidding on procurements, with retaliatory actions such as this remaining in place until U.S. President Donald Trump drops tariffs and the threat thereof altogether.
(On Thursday, Trump announced a one-month pause on tariffs for some Canadian goods and a reduction for potash tariffs to 10 per cent.)
A city spokesperson told Sudbury.com that the procurement ban Ford announced would only apply to provincial contracts.
They also said that staff “await further updates” and that Mayor Paul Lefebvre would provide an update on “U.S. procurement and tariff issues” at the next finance and administration committee meeting of city council, scheduled for March 18.
This will come one day after the event centre management services request for proposal closes.
The request for pre-qualification for Greater Sudbury event centre management received only two bids last year, which were by the two U.S. companies the city ended up prequalifying.
Additional plan-takers who did not submit a bid include Tunio Developments, based in Innisfil, and WSP Canada, based in Thornhill.
The pre-qualified companies have experience managing large centres of this nature, and have connections to promoters and networks to do the work efficiently, city Growth and Infrastructure manager Tony Cecutti told Sudbury.com when the two companies were pre-qualified.
“They’ve got a team that is managing multiple facilities around the globe,” he said.
“They’ll have connections with companies like Ticketmaster, and they have different types of systems that are common for people who purchase tickets nowadays.
“That’s becoming the norm in the industry, and it makes it a lot more cost-effective, and the quality of product they deliver is high because they’re used to this and get very proficient at it.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.