The use of American contracts and services is down by nearly half on Prince Edward Island following tariffs and shaky trade relations under the Donald Trump administration.

Data from the province’s Finance Department shows a drop in sole-source contracts and tenders awarded to American companies from former President Joe Biden to President Donald Trump.

In the past five fiscal years there was a rise in tenders and contracts to American companies as the world crawled out of the COVID-19 pandemic, to a high in that five-year span of 32 total contracts and tenders in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

That was the last year of Biden’s presidency. In the 2025-2026 fiscal, contracts and tenders sunk to a total of 17.

Fiscal year	Tenders	Sole-source contracts	Combined
2021-2022	1	12	13
2022-2023	4	5	9
2023-2024	3	21	24
2024-2025	4	28	32
2025-2026	1	16	17

Tenders represent new projects awarded to American companies by the P.E.I. government, and sole-source contracts are recurring purchases for things like subscriptions, licences and more.

In an emailed statement, the province said the “number of American contracts fluctuates from year to year, depending on when multi-year contracts are due for renewal.”

No one in the government was available to speak in detail about the sole-source contracts, but in a statement a spokesperson with the Finance Department said “Government has been moving towards prioritizing Canadian suppliers or those with Canadian offices whenever operationally, legally, and financially valid and valuable to do so while respecting existing trade agreements.”

In an interview following a business dinner on Monday, Lantz responded to CBC’s question on American contracts and tenders, saying: “We look at all opportunities to use the leverage we have in our relationship with the United States right now that is obviously a little bit strained.”

“You’ll note that there’s still no bourbon on the shelves.”

‘Too early to tell’ if this is a trend, professor says

The question UPEI economic professor Jim Sentance has is whether this is a trend, or just a moment.

“Too early to tell is the first thing that pops into my head. My understanding with a lot of these contracts is that they’re sort of renewals of things, software licences and things of that nature,” he said.

“We probably need to either get more detail on what contracts they’ve been handing out, and which ones have changed, or watch it over a few more years and see if the trend really is a trend.”

Sentance has watched presidents, prime ministers and policies for decades, and said the response this past year toward the United States and its tariffs is unlike anything he’s seen before.

“I’d have to characterize this as crazy and irresponsible, is what Trump has done from the U.S. side,” he said. “The more amazing and significant thing for me is not what governments have done, but what people have done.”

Islanders and Canadians widely have reined in spending on American products where possible, boycotting alcohol, some services and refusing to travel.

Sentance said the trade war, reaction to the Trump administration’s tariffs and threats to annex Canada shows Canadians are “fed up.”

He’s looking to see if this sentiment continues in the months and years ahead for people as well as provincial governments — which still have to navigate free trade agreements with the U.S., despite the movement.

“There’s only so far we can go. We seem to have gotten away with what we’ve done with liquor orders,” he said.

“But still, I think we do need to be careful and we do need to be respectful of the agreement if we ever hope to get it back in place. I think it’s been good for the Canadian economy, and it’s important that we get back to something similar to what we had.”