Trade infrastructure investment on table at Ministers’ Dinner
Key provincial ministers told a business crowd of more than 200 people May 29 that Manitoba is ready to spur significant economic growth through investments, including in trade corridors.
The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce’s annual Ministers’ Dinner also heard that for similar sustained growth on a national level, Canada needs a long-term strategy for investing in trade infrastructure.
A coalition of seven national business groups is advocating for a Canada Trade Infrastructure Plan, to shape long-term investments in nation-building infrastructure projects that elevate the country’s trade productivity and profile, MHCA President & CEO Chris Lorenc told the largely business crowd at the dinner.
“Canada needs a long-term strategy focusing on high-priority/high-value trade corridor investments to build the trade enabling transportation network Canada needs, 20 to 30 years from now. One that sets criteria for identifying investment based on a project’s ability to offer high value and highest ROI to GDP,” Lorenc explained.
Importantly, he noted, Premier Heather Stefanson has become the leading champion for the proposed Canada Trade Infrastructure Plan, a strategy to move beyond the traditional five-year funding approach.
“That (short-term funding) is old-school thinking,” Lorenc said. “It is short-sighted and has not served our national nor provincial interests well.
The MHCA was again a presenting sponsor to the Dinner. To read Lorenc’s address click here.
Lorenc was preceded on the stage by Finance Minister Cliff Cullen, who said Premier Heather Stefanson made economic growth government’s first priority, upon her election as party leader some 18 months ago.
Manitobans can see the early results of that in substantial investments to date, Cullen noted, adding that the Premier’s marching orders were to see government “respond at the speed of business.”
A $100-million venture capital fund, creation of a taxation working group and the financial commitment to CentrePort Canada are all signs of the government’s strategy to spur growth, he said.
MTI Minister Doyle Piwniuk outlined the role that investments in trade corridors and other infrastructure will play in Manitoba’s future.
Piwniuk singled out the opportunities to flow from the recent signing of an agreement by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to collaborate on constructing trade corridors across provincial boundaries.
Such collaboration will see all three provinces working together to pull greater share, in total, of federal infrastructure funding into the region.
Piwniuk noted that investment in trade corridors – including Manitoba’s Highway 75, which is receiving substantial investment in the next years have already begun.
Manitoba is vast trove of commodities in high demand globally. Developing critical minerals necessary for electronic and battery components will require investment in the transportation routes to ensure they get to their markets, Piwniuk said.
