Thank you very much. Good morning.
The Business Council of Manitoba is very pleased to have this opportunity to participate in the pre-budget consultations. We represent the CEOs of more than 70 leading corporations headquartered in Manitoba.
The council is non-partisan in our outlook. Our interest is in contributing positively to shaping policy that fundamentally impacts our businesses, and the livelihoods of the tens of thousands of Manitobans employed in our member businesses. We believe our suggestions can lead to a more competitive economy, allowing businesses and individuals to prosper, and governments to benefit from the wealth and employment created. A rising level of prosperity throughout is our overall objective.
The starting point for a prosperous economy is to have a sound, stable fiscal framework. We believe it is important to set a target, and over time, to pursue a balanced budget. Occasional deficits to provide stimulus can be a useful tool. However, continual deficits place us in an increasingly precarious position. I point to our current situation in Manitoba as an example of a very serious deficit situation.
We must be competitive as a country where the business climate—and we define that as including taxes, regulations, access to skilled labour and capital—is on par with competing jurisdictions. To emphasize the point, if these conditions are not present, the ability of our homegrown businesses in Canada and Manitoba that now generate tens of thousands of jobs is compromised.
A key factor in our ability to compete is to have an educated and skilled workforce. Many businesses continue to confront shortages in key areas, particularly the sciences, engineering, and business. We suggest that there are three parts to securing a workforce to help carry us forward. Our post-secondary system is serving us well, but we need to ensure that it is more effective at graduating students equipped with the skills required in our economy.
Second, we have relied on immigration and the provincial nominee program to address skill shortages. That reliance will continue into the foreseeable future. The federal and provincial governments should expand the nominee program and allow greater provincial flexibility, in partnership with employers, to address the unique regional differences and requirements.
The third component of addressing our needs for an educated workforce is to more fully engage our youth, particularly our indigenous youth, and ensure they have opportunities to participate in our future. Businesses struggle for skilled workers while young indigenous people seek work. We have the opportunity to engage this growing segment of our population more fully, if we strengthen our efforts to ensure educational outcomes for indigenous students are on a par with the rest of the student population. In Manitoba, we have one of the highest proportions of indigenous citizens. The federal and Manitoba governments must strategically co-operate to implement an integrated strategy, from education through to economic development, with the goal of ensuring our indigenous citizens are equipped with the skills to share in building our future and have the opportunity to invest in their own enterprises. We want them to be leaders, not just employees.
Canada is built on trade. Manitoba is a province that is built on trade. Our economy is considerably larger than if we relied on our small Manitoba market, or even our Canadian market. Many millions of jobs, and a third of our GDP, are directly trade-dependent. Allowing access to our market and gaining access to international markets will support our future growth.
We believe that we should be open to enhanced trade. Domestically, we continue to advocate for speedy improvements to the agreement on internal trade that is now being considered by the premiers. We support the Canada-EU trade agreement, and in principle, we support the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP would provide increased access for Manitoba exports of agricultural and value-added products, as well as manufactured goods. In the absence of the TPP, should that come about, we suggest that Canada should pursue a bilateral agreement, as a priority, with the most significant Asian member of the TPP group.
The federal government has allocated significant funding for innovation. The national innovation agenda should build on regional strengths and opportunities that take advantage of the existing partnerships and collaborations. One such Manitoba example is called EMILI, enterprise machine intelligence and learning initiative. This is at the leading edge of innovation in our nation. EMILI represents a unique partnership of businesses, universities, colleges, the Province of Manitoba, and hopefully the federal government. The initiative will advance machine learning innovation in support, in part, of our manufacturing sector and our competitiveness. We suggest that it should be a national priority.
In terms of infrastructure, over the next decade, we as a nation will be making very significant investments in infrastructure, almost unprecedented. We support infrastructure and transportation investments that enable private sector investment, export growth in trade, and improved productivity and competitiveness. We advocate a focused, strategic approach to investment that includes trade-based, strategic infrastructure investment; innovation and incorporation of technology; and community sustainability and prosperity.
I want to give one Manitoba example. Annually, $25 billion in goods drawn from across western Canada flows across the Manitoba-U.S. border. This trade corridor, including the border-crossing facilities at Emerson, Manitoba, require additional trade-related investment, which would include the incorporation of new technology to facilitate the commercial and individual movement across the border. That border crossing is federal and the highways are provincial. On the U.S. side, the facilities are federal and the highways are generally state. Therefore, amazing co-operation is essential, but that is the single largest border impediment to enhanced Canada-U.S. trade in western Canada.
Thank you.