Item - 2017.GM23.7

The Government Management Committee deferred consideration of the item until the January 11, 2018 Government Management Committee meeting and requested the General Manager, Economic Development and Culture to attend the meeting.

City Council directed staff to report back on the feasibility of developing a Canadian Content Policy for the City of Toronto's procurements in compliance with recent trade agreements such as the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).

In reviewing the feasibility of implementing a Canadian Content Policy in accordance with CETA and CFTA provisions, staff are not recommending the implementation of a Canadian Content Policy for the following reasons:

-  The policy would only be applicable for goods and services up to $340,615 in value, or construction contracts up to $8.5 million dollars in value.

-  For goods and services, the dollar values for these contracts are small and the resources that would be required to audit these contracts to ensure that they met the Canadian content claimed would likely outweigh the value that might arise from requiring Canadian Content.

-  For construction services, this policy will have minimal impact because these services are primarily performed by natural persons based in the GTA as the City is obligated to use labour trade unions in the ICI sector and most material used in construction by their nature, are acquired in the GTA.

-  Further, no certification body exists for PMMD to use to ensure that goods being procured are made in Canada and would meet the level of Canadian content required and, compliance risks associated with adopting a Canadian content policy for all City procurements would likely outweigh the uncertain benefits that could be achieved from a few exceptional procurements.

-  From a jurisdictional scan perspective there are limited examples of Canadian Content Policies, and where it is done, such as for transit vehicles for the TTC, that type of purchase has a robust audit process to ensure the Canadian Content is met.