Prime Minister Mark Carney’s calls for a more sovereign Canada at the World Economic Forum were front of mind for many at what was described as a “miniature Davos conference” in Winnipeg on Thursday.
The third annual Western Canada Economic Forum is being hosted at the Fairmont Hotel and continues today. It is occurring simultaneously with the World Economic Forum in Sweden, where Carney’s speech Tuesday calling on the world’s middle powers to collaborate away from “the old order” of American hegemony has made headlines.
Liberal MP Terry Duguid echoed the sentiment at Thursday’s gathering, saying Canada needed to make some “major adjustments.”
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‘We have an opportunity to build our nation through the north, and I think that starts with Churchill,’ Manitoba Business Minister Jamie Moses told members of the business community.
“In a time of major disruption, we need to build new partnerships, diversify our trade and strengthen our resilience,” he said. “And we need to move with speed and urgency if we’re going to be masters in our own home.”
Churchill’s role in the face of growing Canadian sovereignty is key, Duguid said, be it through the race for critical minerals, its possible future as a military base or its potential for trade with Europe and Asia.
“Yes, the infrastructure needs a shoring up, including ice breaking for 12 months (of) service, that will be essential, but our government has recognized the potential in a reliable northern corridor for diversifying our trade and finding new markets,” he said.
The Port of Churchill, Winnipeg Richardson International Airport and CentrePort Canada signed a memorandum of understanding with federal and provincial governments to work together to move goods throughout the province Monday.
On Thursday, Chris Avery said his 18-month tenure as the head of Arctic Gateway Group, which owns the Port of Churchill and its Hudson Bay Railway link, has been defined as “pre-Trump, post-Trump, and post-Trump on steroids.”
“If you’re listening to the news, we are changing as a nation, and we’re going to produce more, and we’re going to trade more, we will grow trading, we will diversify trade,” he said. “There’s lots of opportunities out there that haven’t even shown their face or risen about the ground yet.”
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Manitoba Business Minister Jamie Moses lauded the collaboration as “something very special.”
“We have an opportunity to build our nation through the north, and I think that starts with Churchill,” he told members of the business community.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to take over Greenland have brought new interest in the expansion of Churchill’s port — on Tuesday, Premier Wab Kinew said its role as the sole port and rail line that feed the Arctic as “absolutely essential to maintain sovereignty.”
Trump backpedalled on those threats Wednesday.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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