We’re bringing you a look back at the Manitoba Economic Summit in Winkler earlier this month, beginning with valuable insights from our first panel focusing on Trade Opportunities for Manitoba Businesses.
Asked to weigh in on the future of free trade, business and consumer perspectives, alternative trade corridors, interprovincial opportunities, diversifying export markets and more, the panel delivered a forward-facing dialogue that balanced caution with optimism. Moderated by André Brin, CEO of World Trade Centre Winnipeg, the panel titled “Diversify, Expand, and Future-Proof Your Market” featured three Manitoba business experts:
- Andrew Enns, Executive Vice President, Central Canada, Leger
- Jill Verwey, President, Keystone Agricultural Producers
- Chris Avery, CEO, Arctic Gateway Group
Several dominant themes emerged from the hour-long discussion:
- Diversification is a Must: While the U.S. remains Canada’s largest trading partner, political volatility has significantly eroded business confidence, with three out of five senior Canadian business leaders now questioning the U.S.’s reliability as a long-term trade partner. Companies must explore alternatives: market diversification isn’t just a growth tactic, it’s a survival plan.
- Trade Infrastructure is Canada’s Sleeping Giant: Investment in trade-enabling infrastructure isn’t just about moving goods – it’s about asserting sovereignty, enabling interprovincial and international trade, and building generational capacity. Infrastructure investments such as the Port of Churchill and Hudson Bay Railway are critical assets in Manitoba’s playbook to unlock new channels, reduce dependency on vulnerable corridors, and create global trade pathways from our own backyard.
- Economic Nationalism is Fueling a “Buy Canadian” Renaissance: There is a growing patriotic shift among consumers and businesses alike. Businesses are re-evaluating supply chains, sourcing domestically where possible, and delaying investment until trade conditions stabilize. This trend isn’t just about economics – it’s about trust, identity, and resilience, and it opens doors for localized growth, domestic partnerships, and government-supported initiatives.
- Policy Clarity and Regulatory Alignment Are Crucial to Growth: Across all sectors, there’s a strong call for predictable, harmonized policy and regulation. Businesses need clarity and consistency – from municipal to federal levels – to plan, innovate, and expand. Governments should align not just across provinces, but also with international regulatory partners to streamline exports and foster confidence.
- Collaboration is the New Competitive Advantage: Whether it’s agriculture, manufacturing, or infrastructure, the panel emphasized a pan-Canadian, “Team Canada” approach. Competing municipalities and disconnected provincial strategies just won’t cut it. Instead, a unified front – public-private partnerships, interprovincial collaboration, and co-investment in market research, skills training, and innovation – will drive long-term competitiveness. Manitoba businesses should lead by example in aligning regional capabilities to national strategies.
- Invest Now, Win Later: This is Canada’s opportunity to build something historic, and Manitoba is uniquely positioned to lead – but market diversification and global growth don’t happen overnight. If businesses want to be exporting to new markets in 3–5 years, the investments – in talent, research, partnerships, and infrastructure – must happen today.
Valuable Perspectives
Delve deeper into the perspectives shared, with excerpts of responses from our panelists on some of the questions asked:
On the Future of Free Trade in a New Political Era
- Enns: “Businesses are looking at the U.S. differently… Over 60% of senior business leaders don’t have confidence in the U.S. as a reliable, long-term trading partner – which is pretty tough when you think of where we are as a country, and the opportunity the U.S. presents as a trading partner. The business community is going to say ‘hold on; let’s be cautious’.” – Andrew Enns, Executive Vice President, Central Canada, Leger
- Verwey: “Protectionism globally has changed. I think we really need to lean into that North American relationship that we have, instead of pulling back. We share a lot of commonalities in terms of rule-based trade, and a lot of our scientific knowledge in terms of how we go about regulation is similar… If we look at the actual stakeholders we deal with, and particularly with the pork industry, we have built substantial relationships with industry on both sides, and we’re really reliant on having that trading relationship… The 80% of agriculture that’s going to the US, we can’t eat it all or use it all. We can’t develop new markets overnight, and I think that’s understood across the line.”
On Exploring Alternative Trade Corridors
- Avery: “Well before Mr. Trump was elected president, we were talking about building up trade-enabling infrastructure and making Manitoba truly a maritime province… We haven’t diversified as much as we need to. The Port of Churchill, right here in our own backyard, provides us that opportunity to diversify our trade. It has traditionally has been an agricultural and grain port, and certainly, opportunities exist there today to continue to diversify our trade there and continue to send our agricultural products not just to the U.S. but abroad to the European union, to Africa, the middle east, south America, and so on. Those are things we have done and will continue to do, and the Port of Churchill is a gateway for that.”
- Verwey: “Having that additional port, and a system available for export and import into Canada, is really important. If we look at labour constraints and transportation of grain from east to west, we’ve relied far too long on the infrastructure that is there. That has actually hurt us internationally, reputation wise, because of labour disruptions, and because of our winter weather, which has a big impact on it. Discussing it with our counterparts in Washington when we met a year ago, it provides another opportunity for the Midwest in the United States, because they have constraints, as well as having access to another port location.”
On Consumer Perspectives and “Buy Local”
- Enns: “Three quarters of Canadians are saying they are deliberately trying to buy Canadian if they can. We have 70% of consumers who, when shopping, are making conscious efforts to not buy American. All of a sudden there’s a maple leaf on everything now… In late March, we found a big spike around businesses taking deliberate action or actively seeking opportunities to change the supply chain to move stuff out of America… There’s uncertainty; they just try to get their products domestically sourced if possible, and look for opportunities that seem more secure. We’re also seeing delayed investments. They just feel like they need to take some action.”
On Business Sentiment Amidst Trade Uncertainty
- Brin: “Regardless of what happens, the U.S. is going to be a huge market for Canada. We’re not changing neighbours, the border isn’t moving – regardless of what the US president says. There are interesting opportunities here, from a province standpoint, to build up state-to-province opportunities. But we’re looking at the long term. Diversifying markets doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a two-, three-, four-year commitment.”
- Verwey: “From the producer standpoint, access to capital, the pressure on the cost of money, getting crop in ground or livestock to pasture, just the daily toll… the impacts we’re seeing are forced by uncertainty, which has put pressure on markets…. If you’re looking at increasing capacity, innovation, all the things that are going to drive productivity, farmers need a bottom line that’s black, not red. … I think it comes down to having a strong trade and economic plan for Canada, and provincially, and I think it’s all really made everybody very conscious as to what we’re doing provincially, and realizing: did we have a strong plan in place? We need a plan, there needs to be investment there so we can plan for the future.”
On Policy Recommendations to Help Businesses Diversify Trade Relationships and Build Economic Resilience
- Enns: “Federal, provincial, municipal – we need to aim for certainty for businesses. You don’t have to make everybody happy, but just set the rules. Make it clear to people. Look for opportunities to streamline the ability for businesses to operate.”
- Verwey: “If we are wanting to build capacity and have the infrastructure to be able to build and expand, and expand the export side, there has to be investment dollars on the research side to increase that profitability… A lot of times what puts a roadblock in front of the investment dollars is having to jump through an additional set of hoops, or more red tape, to make those investments. For example, the building codes from coast to coast in Canada differ, so you’re not even being competitive on the same level playing ground, even from here to Saskatchewan to Alberta, to even put up a building for agriculture. So having that consistency, and having it predictable and transparent, is really important going forward.”
- Avery: “Things can change very quickly in the U.S., as we’ve seen. And if it’s not the U.S. today, it could be China tomorrow, or Asia the next day, and so on. So building this infrastructure, having the policy federally and provincially to continue to support building out our trade-enabling infrastructure – where we’re perhaps under invested in as a country – that’s what keeps me up at night, thinking that we’ll be lulled back into status quo, and then, five years down the road, we’re in exactly the same position, and we have another five years to catch up on.”
On the Future Outlook: Staying Ahead of Trade Shifts
- Enns: “Right now, 70 to 80% of Canadians are of the view that tariffs are going to have a really negative impact on our economy. So ideally over time, once we start to internalize these things, and whether they level out or whether CUSMA comes along, we’d like to see that anxiety diminish, because anxious consumers aren’t good for business. If you’re willing to invest in either your supply chains or your business or your employees, there’s something behind that that says you’re feeling better about the future.”
- Avery: “We all have to think about our business and what’s happening this year, and what we’re going to deliver in the next couple years, but also think about the future and future generations. As we think about Manitoba as a maritime province – we work very closely with the University of Manitoba, looking at the changes of climate change, and the impact of climate change to the sea lanes. With their the data that they’ve gathered, they tell us that within the generation of our children or grandchildren, the sea lanes in the north are going to be open at almost a year-round basis. So we need to start to think about that, and plan for that, and invest for that, because building this for the generations ahead of us is going to be a big part of our economy, a big part of our trade-enabling infrastructure.”
Read the 2025 Manitoba Economic Summit Recap: Shaping Manitoba’s Economic Future
