Business leaders, experts and community members from across the province gathered to explore ideas to strengthen the rural workforce, improve immigrant retention and support economic growth at the Rural Manitoba Workforce Summit in Brandon on Friday, June 20.
Presenters at the conference hosted by the Rural Manitoba Immigrant Employment Council (RMIEC) included Manitoba Chambers of Commerce (MCC) President & CEO Chuck Davidson, who shared the voice of business as a panelist for a discussion titled Labour Market Outlook: Setting the Stage.
Davidson told the roughly 150 attendees at the event that young people want to live in communities that are safe, walkable and offer a good quality of life. To help keep people from leaving the province to find work elsewhere in Canada, he suggested, people need to be more outspoken about everything Manitoba has to offer.
“Let’s brag about where we come from. Be prepared to talk about some of the cool things that are going on in your community, and why people need to come here,” Davidson said.
More Manitobans Choosing to Stay
For the first time since 2024, Statistics Canada reported last week that Manitoba experienced a quarterly net gain from interprovincial migration: During the first quarter of 2025, while 4,246 people left Manitoba, 4,352 people moved here from another province or territory.
The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce has made retention of Manitoba residents – especially young people – an advocacy priority over the past few years. In 2024 MCC released the results of a study, in partnership with the Canada West Foundation and funded by the province, that investigated why young people choose to leave the province and how they could be attracted and retained.
(Photo source: The Brandon Sun)
