As businesses worry about their bottom lines, local charities are also bracing for the impact of the ongoing trade war with the United States.
With the possibility of higher prices and less jobs, local charities worry that tariffs will lead to an economic downturn that could put even more pressure on their services – which already experienced a spike amid rampant inflation post-COVID.
At the Sault Ste. Marie Soup Kitchen Community Centre, less donations than usual have been trickling in, even though service demands remain high.
“We have noticed a lot less donations coming in both monetary and food wise,” said general manager, Ron Sim. “Even before this, prices of everything were starting to go through the roof, and food inflation is still happening. Who knows what's going to happen with all this now?”
Sim said the food bank, which relies solely on community support to fund its operation, serves between 2,000 to 2,500 community members per month.
“We're also the food bank for all the local agencies that want to come and get food for their clients, and we've (seen) a considerable increase in that,” he said.
Other local charities are also bracing for impact.
At the Salvation Army, there has been a “slight uptick” in service needs this winter, while donations have remained fairly constant – but officials worry tariffs could tip the scales for local charities that are already serving “tremendous numbers of people.”
“We're all seeing the same thing, the higher levels of service … with the fallout from the pandemic, and then the inflation crisis and the housing crisis, the mental health crisis, and it just continues on and on and on. Our numbers are much higher than they should be,” said Major Sean Furey.
“Anytime that you have a downturn in the (economy), what ends up happening is that you have fewer donations and more people looking for assistance, so there's huge potential for problems.”
As the Salvation Army looks to steer its way through high prices and potential spikes in service, Furey said the organization is looking to source Canadian food products.
“A 25 per cent increase in oranges and apples and bananas and those kinds of things would negatively impact us right off the bat,” he said. “We are already starting to source Canadian, and doing the best we can to be prepared for when this day finally arrives.”
“But you really don't know what the impacts are going to be. They're not going to be good. That's the only thing you can be sure of.”
At Save Our Young Adults, which recently reopened in a new building, there has already been a slight downturn in donations.
“Our numbers are going to go up, our donations are going to go down, and then food is going to get even more costly because of putting the tariffs on it,” said Connie Raynor-Elliott, SOYA's founder.
Last week, SOYA held a non-advertised soft reopening, but Raynor-Elliott said the food bank has still seen high demand.
“Last Saturday was our first time that we were open to the public, and people were lined up an hour and a half early,” she said.
“Numbers are usually about 500 a week when we're open, and I didn't advertise . . . because we're not completely set up. We had 389 people.”
At the end of the day, Raynor-Elliott said it’s the city’s most vulnerable who are going to be impacted the most.
For St. Vincent Place, it’s still too soon to judge how tariffs will impact its operations.
“I can say that I think it's too early to tell,” said marketing manager, Sara McCleary.
“This is typically our slowest time for donations anyway and it seems to be running about what it usually does, but we may start to feel the effects more in another month or two.”
While the full impacts of the trade war are not yet clear, St. Vincent has already seen a few thoughtful donations from people worried about the economy in Sault Ste. Marie.
“Last week we actually received a couple of donations from folks in Toronto with a message that they'd heard the Sault's economy would likely be hit hard by the steel tariffs so they wanted to try to help,” she said.
“I thought that was really wonderful and shows how Canadians really are standing together during this tough time.”