Federated Co-op members gathered in Saskatoon on Monday for the companies 96th annual meeting. Tariffs were among topics that were brought up and how it could impact Co-Op grocery stores. (Shane Clausing/650 CKOM)

By Shane Clausing, CKOM News Staff

Co-op grocery stores brace for impact ahead of U.S. tariffs

Mar 3, 2025 | 12:08 PM

Grocery stores throughout Saskatchewan are bracing for impact as the United States gets ready to implement its tariffs on all Canadian products starting tomorrow.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said the tariffs are in response to Canada’s lack of security at the border when it comes to keeping migrants and fentanyl out of the U.S.

With the tariffs ready to take place, Co-op CEO Heather Ryan said that you could see grocery prices jump over the coming days.

“There will be costs if these tariffs come into play and how that plays out remains to be seen,” Ryan said when speaking at the company’s annual meeting on Monday. “If there’s a flat tariff put on things, it does have to be covered at some point. So there will be shared costs. Consumers across North America are going to see an impact to prices.”

Co-op and their suppliers do not know exactly how drastically prices could increase on groceries when the tariffs get implemented.

Community Support

Poutine Fest raises nearly $9K for Big Brothers Big Sisters

7h ago

2025 wildfires

Members of St. Louis Fire Department receive Premier's Commendation award

7h ago

Affordable housing

First 18 Métis Nation homes to be ready this fall in Prince Albert

7h ago

Despite the threat of tariffs, Ryan mentioned Co-op is equipped to handle whatever could come its way.

“We’ve been preparing for this for 96 years,” she said. “We procure a vast majority of our products in Canada. We’re a Western Canadian organization.”

“We’re going to work to continue to make sure we provide the value for our members and what they need. Co-op has always been rooted in communities and providing value, the dollars go back into those communities,” Ryan said. “We are well positioned in all of our commodities, in terms of producing and providing Canadian products and procuring where we need to.”

While there are trade tensions with the United States at the moment, Ryan said Co-op still plans on working with its U.S. suppliers and has no plans to discontinue any relationships with them.

“We have good relationships with our suppliers, so we’ll just continue to keep those lines of communication open. We haven’t ceased anything, but definitely, we know who we have lines of business with and continue to work with those suppliers,” she explained. “A lot of the suppliers are uncertain of how this is going to take shape as well.”

Prior to the tariffs, Ryan said Co-op was already promoting made-in-Canada products.

She thinks that the trend of people buying Canadian is going to continue.

“Your dollars stay in Canada, that means a lot to people. It’s early days, I think people are trying to understand what this means – but definitely looking at labels a lot more closely than they have,” Ryan explained. “We’ve always said, it’s Co-op. We’re always rooted in our communities and I think that means more to people today.”