Gravenhurst receives AMO 'Communities Brace for Tariff Impact' letter
Gravenhurst received an AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) 'Communities Brace for Tariff Impact' letter, in the March 18, 2025, meeting.
The letter outlined critical highlights about tariff impacts from their new webpage. For example, “Oxford Economics estimates that tariffs could increase infrastructure costs over $1 billion on nearly $50 billion in planned expenditures over the next two years.”
It adds, “Municipalities can use the 2.1% municipal capital cost increase to help inform decisions on upcoming contracts.”
They indicated that their new webpage also provides updates about tariff trade actions, centralized resources, and “buy Canadian” initiatives, to help municipalities comply with trade agreements while supporting local, provincial, and Canadian economies.
AMO indicated that their actions will involve working with the business community, including residential and civil construction industries “to make the case for investing in municipal services such as social housing and local infrastructure as a stimulus measure,” because creating employment contributes to economic growth.
They continued that their president, Robin Jones, has also contacted the Premier about economic development measures to support communities and their economies “at this critical time.”
The Town’s CAO, Scott Lucas, elaborated about some of the local measures that have been made, including municipal education about what the Town can do, and webinars with organizations “to figure out what our options are, not the least of which is the municipal MFOA [Municipal Finance Officers’ Association].”
He added, “The most immediate response…was the response for the business community and making sure that we were providing as much support as we could there.”
“In the meantime, we’ve been doing a lot of analysis internally to see what the types of impacts might be. And of course, it’s difficult to do when you’re assessing impacts for things that change by the day,” he continued.
He said that they’re also providing AMO with information to add to their data about municipal impacts, which gets sent to the provincial government “to better support municipalities through what may be a bit of a difficult time, in particular as it relates to our capital program.”
“It’s challenging when you don’t know exactly what it is you’re dealing with,” added Lucas.
Director of Community Growth and Development, Melissa Halford, said that Economic Development Officers are meeting to discuss ways they can support the business community.
She added, “Staff will be reaching out to about 20 different businesses that based on the research that we feel that would be most impacted – could be most impacted – by tariffs and to see if they know about the Muskoka Tariff Hub.”
She explained that the regional website provides updates and data for business owners, and said staff will also be meeting one on one with the business community.
“Everyday is different and we’re trying to plan for literally the unplannable but we’re doing I think a really great job. There’s been lots of PR actually about how great a job that the Muskoka Group has done.”
Mayor, Heidi Lorenz, concurred that uncertainty is an issue right now. She said, “It’s so erratic. We don’t know from one day to the next what’s coming out of I guess Mar-a-Lago. It’s not even the oval office.”
She also expressed appreciation for the patriotism she’s seeing. “I think it’s really incredible to see Canadians across the country,” she said.
She urged, “Lets all do our part and stick together and do what’s right.”
