The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce (MCC) set up shop in the Meridian Exhibition Centre last week for its 2025 Manitoba Economic Summit.
The event brought together nearly 200 business leaders from across Manitoba to Winkler for two days of networking and education.
It’s the first time the Winkler and District Chamber of Commerce has played host to this conference in over a decade, shared executive director Tanya Chateauneuf
“It’s great to bring it back to our community,” she said. “They mentioned that this is probably one of the biggest venues they’ve ever hosted it in, so we’re glad we could accommodate them and all our guests in the community.”
“It’s a really good opportunity to network with a lot of people from all over the province,” added Winkler chamber president Doug Eidse, who noted the various panel discussions and guest speakers also provided a lot of food for thought for attendees.
“There’s definitely a lot of perspectives and information, and simply places here where you can find information. A lot of times you want to do something better or come up with solutions and you don’t know where to look—there’s a lot of people here that have that information … shipping logistics, trade and import/export experts, communications.”
MCC president and CEO Chuck Davidson said it was a fruitful, engaging couple of days.
“We were thrilled with representation from the various levels of government, having the mayors of both Morden and Winker spending the majority of the time there, and having someone like Minister [Glen] Samard [Minister of Municipal and Northern Relations] and Minister [Adrien] Salla [Minister of Finance] address the crowd.”
The summit is “an opportunity to talk about the importance of the chamber network and see strong chambers in action and discuss issues that are of importance to the broader business community,” Davidson said. “It’s an opportunity to hear from government officials, key business leaders, and the opportunity to network as well and to learn more about the communities that we’re going into.”
In addition to keynote addresses from Simard and Sala on the work the provincial government is doing to address economic concerns, other speakers and panels dug into topics that included trade opportunities for Manitoba businesses, U.S. exceptionalism, strengthening local supply chains, and better lining up immigration strategies to meet labour market needs.
“A lot of the conference had a sense as to what’s been happening south of the border and how we can pivot to ‘Trump-proof’ our economy here in Manitoba,” observed Davidson. “Whether it was looking at additional trade opportunities, whether it was looking at procurement. The finance minster outlined a six-step process that the province is looking at in terms of how can we grow our economy … and the steps that the government is looking to take. I think that was an important message to deliver to this group.
“For all the panels, really, our hope is that there’s going to be takeaways—whether it’s a business or a community leader or a chamber leader across the province, that they can take away to say there’s a message that I can help to grow our own local business community.”
The provincial organization is always looking at ways to take its events outside Winnipeg, and Winkler proved the perfect location, Davidson shared.
“We were thrilled with the event, the location, and we will definitely be back.”
