Many Canadians remain frustrated amid the current tariff tensions with the U.S. including some Toronto college students, who decided to use their expertise to do something in response.
A group of Seneca Polytechnic students, who barely knew each other recently came together to create a computer program for a recent hackathon.
“We had to come up with a program that was food related so we were all scrambling our brains,” said student, Jenny Zhang. “Then someone brought up the U.S. tariffs, and we all started ranting about it so we were like ‘why don’t we just make our program about that?’”
They began to do some research and while they found there are apps that already exist which allow consumers to scan products in grocery stores to determine if they’re made in Canada, these students wanted to take it a few steps further.
“We decided to try and figure out how much, percentage wise, of products are made strictly in Canada?” said Shemar Shirley. “With a lot of products there is often just a percentage that is made in Canada but we wanted to know how much exactly.”
The prototype they created scans a product’s ingredient list, which they say gives clues on the origins.
“For the limited products we have listed, and we still have a long ways to go, we have each ingredient mapped to a country. These are clues which help us come up with a percentage of ingredients sourced here in Canada.”
The students did not win funding in the hackathon they entered but it hasn’t stopped them from trying to find other sources to continue their work on top of continuing their studies at the college.
“We’re not getting paid for this,” said Shirley. “We’re doing this because we want to support Canada and this is how we felt we could help.”
“This is something that started as a conversation and if it goes somewhere, that’s great but we’re not in this to make money,” Zhang added. “We believe we have something here, we just need support to get it going.”
The students are now working to find additional sources of funding or expertise from those already working in the field. Currently they’re looking for an app developer to collaborate with.
These students are the latest to help educate consumers on the products they’re buying since the tariff tensions with the U.S. began. In the past CityNews has told you stories of other apps already available.
According to Canada’s Competition Bureau, products labeled as ‘Made in Canada’ must contain 51 per cent of homebased ingredients, 98 per cent for a ‘Product of Canada’ label.
If launched, these students feel their program will help take out the guess work, with one quick scan.
“I think it’s a good product, at least a good idea,” Zhang said. “Plus it’s for a good cause, and I think that’s the main draw to it too, right? It’s sort of supporting our voices at a time where we feel like no one can really hear them and for that, this has been worth it.”
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