Retaliatory tariffs on U.S. books could cost the OPL nearly a million dollars in lost materials, even when buying from Canadian publishers.
The Ottawa Public Library could lose purchasing power for tens of thousands of items if Canada imposes retaliatory tariffs on print books from the United States.
The counter-tariffs would come into effect if the U.S. follows through on newly announced trade measures. On April 2, President Donald Trump said the United States would begin imposing reciprocal tariffs on a country-by-country basis at a new baseline of 10 per cent. Canada was not mentioned by name, but falls within the scope of the policy.
The proposed Canadian response includes print materials often found in public libraries, like newspapers, journals, periodicals, and children’s picture books.
Sarah Macintyre, the Ottawa library’s Division Manager for Client Services, said it was preparing for the possibility that these tariffs would be triggered.
“If we assume that there could be a potential impact for our collections, that could be up to $950,000,” Macintyre said.
The estimate is based on current spending through Canadian wholesalers, who often supply titles printed in the U.S., including works by Canadian authors and publishers.
“An impact of that amount of money could mean a reduction in purchasing power of almost 33,000 items,” Macintyre said. “It could potentially mean that we’re going to have to purchase fewer new titles, fewer replacement copies (and) fewer copies of individual titles.
“It could result in longer hold queues for our clients,” she added. “If we choose to buy 25 copies of a book instead of 30, it’ll take longer for clients to get their holds.”
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Ottawa Public Library runs a centralized collection shared across all 33 branches. Readers request titles from anywhere in the system and receive them at their preferred locations.
“We don’t approach our collections at a branch level,” Macintyre said. “Our collections at the library represent a shared service for all Ottawans.”
The federal government has said its tariffs are designed to pressure U.S. lawmakers to reverse trade measures and to make American products “less desirable for Canadian consumers to purchase” while encouraging Canadians to buy domestically produced goods.
“We’re limited to the places that we can procure and the people, the groups that are publishing the materials that we want to buy,” Macintyre said.
“Because so much of our content is printed in the United States, to be able to keep sharing Canadian stories we’re going to have to keep procuring books that are published there.”
Even titles published by multinational publishers with Canadian divisions may still be subject to tariffs depending on where the printing is done.
The Ottawa Public Library is part of national organizations like the Canadian Urban Libraries Council and the Canadian Federation of Library Associations, which have submitted formal responses to the Department of Finance opposing proposed counter-tariffs on printed materials. Macintyre said the sector was also calling on provinces to increase grant funding to help offset potential losses.
“People might be buying fewer books for themselves, which means they rely on us more,” she said. “It’s a hard time for this to happen.”
The library doesn’t rely on fundraising to cover core acquisitions, but Macintyre encourages residents to continue supporting groups like the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association, which fundraises for programming and services.
“We’re going to continue to be there for our residents,” she said. “We provide access to information sources and diverse points of views and ideas. That has never been more important.”
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