Manitoba finance minister announces AI training initiative for businesses

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This article was published 21/03/2025 (196 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For years, Manitoba — and Canada overall — have seen decreased productivity. Local business leaders hope a new $2 million initiative will help reverse course.

Budget 2025 tabs the money for artificial intelligence adoption among Manitoba businesses. Finance Minister Adrien Sala made the announcement Friday at a Manitoba Chambers of Commerce event in Winnipeg; the room was full of private-sector leads.

“Our team is focused on making Manitoba into the most productive economy possible,” Sala later told reporters. “We’ve got this great opportunity to inject more productivity into our economy by leveraging AI.”

Manitoba experienced a 2.6 per cent decrease in productivity — calculated by considering input and output — when comparing the periods of 1997-2019 and 2020-23, a University of Calgary policy school report found.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem visited Winnipeg in June 2024 and sounded alarm bells: he called productivity growth the country’s “Achilles heel.”

Only Italy is below Canada in a productivity decline when comparing G7 countries, per a 2024 speech by Carolyn Rogers, Bank of Canada senior deputy governor.

Artificial intelligence may help, Manitoba Chambers of Commerce presiden Chuck Davidson believes.

The chambers pitched an AI-focused initiative to government after beginning to use the technology.

Davidson now taps Microsoft’s Copilot for assistance with speech writing and pulling information, among other things. He and staff are more efficient using AI, he said.

“It may not be perfect, but it kind of gets you started,” Davidson said. “A lot of Manitoba companies are not using it to the extent that they could.”

The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and its partner chambers, including the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, will use the $2 million to launch in-person sessions, online consults and toolkits teaching AI use.

Details are still being worked out. Davidson aims for a summertime start, reaching 2,000 businesses.

The Manitoba body will first work with its network of 65 chambers, who can pass knowledge and resources to local companies.

AI-focused Manitoba firms will be corralled to share their expertise with businesses, Davidson explained. Deals haven’t yet been signed, he added.

U.S.- and China-imposed tariffs likely didn’t spark the new program, but they may have upped the urgency, said the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president.

“This is (something) we’ve been speaking to governments — plural — about for many years,” said Loren Remillard, referencing productivity. “We want to make sure that businesses are utilizing AI appropriately, safely and to yield the maximum benefit.”

There’s no data examining AI adoption in Manitoba companies, said Kay Gardiner, a chambers program co-ordinator spearheading the new initiative.

Across Canada, the Harris Poll found 54 per cent of small businesses had incorporated AI use by 2024.

Friday’s announcement comes during a period of uncertainty for businesses. Many firms have paused investments and frozen hiring as they await the next move in Canada’s trade war with the U.S.

Twenty-two per cent of Manitoba businesses expect layoffs or hiring freezes should America implement broad 25 per cent tariffs, a recent Winnipeg chamber survey found.

AI is meant to assist people’s jobs, not replace them, Gardiner said: “If you think of AI more as a partner to your work as opposed to replacing you, then you as the worker can do things more productively.”

She’s heard the gamut — businesses who’ve fully embraced AI to those considering it “cheating.” The new program, she hopes, will hit a variety of sectors.

“There are barriers to adoption,” said Harry Roy McLaughlin, chair of the Manitoba Association of AI Professionals. “I think having the support of government to break down those barriers is going to be extremely positive for the province.”

Barriers include training and financing, he detailed. Already, companies are using AI to draft emails and reports, code, transcribe meetings and train employees on customer service and fraud prevention, McLaughlin said.

Funding for the new program falls under the province’s business, mining, trade and job creation budget; it devotes $132 million for workforce development and training.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com