MHCA stresses need for trade diversity at CCA Conference: March 9
Canada’s economy and its national security are inseparably connected and that is why our country needs to diversify its trade markets, to protect its long-term economic growth and the quality of life Canadians enjoy.
That’s the message that the CCA Conference (March 9-11) will address in a session called Investing in Trade Diversification – Protecting our national economic and security interests. Panelists, including MHCA President Chris Lorenc, will speak to the ties between trade, and Canada’s economic and national security, how Canada is faring against its global trade competitors and what the data on our investment in trade-enabling transportation infrastructure indicate, relative to Western countries.
“We have been seeing, in real time, how inseparably entwined our economy and national security issues are,” said Lorenc, who is also president of the Western Canada Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association.
Lorenc will present an overview on the issues confronting Canada on the global stage. “Everything from protectionism and the weaponization of trade from our two largest market countries – the US and China – to the state of our trade-enabling infrastructure in Canada is affecting our economic future. And that, by extension, affects our national security and Canada’s place at the global-stage tables where the big security issues get discussed.”
This session will also hear from panelists Carlo Dade, Director of the Canada West Foundation’s Trade and Investment Centre, and Paul Smetanin, President of the economic research group CANSEA.
Lorenc, in his presentation, will outline the need for significant increase in the national trade corridors fund, to allow regional development of trade-enabling transportation networks. The MHCA, through the Western Canada Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association, along with the CCA recently appealed to federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra to increase the fund to raise the country’s trade profile and productivity.
The construction associations are pressing for support for a proposed Western Canada Trade Gateway and Corridor Initiative, to improve and build new trade transportation infrastructure across the West.
