Seeking ‘better relations with Canada’

Critical minerals and green energy: two subjects Germany’s ambassador to Canada plans to explore during his first Manitoba visit.

Matthias Lüttenberg touched down in Winnipeg late Sunday. He arrived ahead of 18 colleagues; a group of European ambassadors and high commissioners, part of a European Union delegation, landed in the keystone province Monday.

“We’re not travelling, usually, together,” Lüttenberg said. “We all want to have better relations with Canada.”

The European Union delegation has a jam-packed schedule Tuesday and Wednesday. There are discussions with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and ministerial roundtables on trade, clean energy and raw materials.

The group is set to meet business organizations and the company behind the Port of Churchill, a deep-water seaport flagged as a promising trade route between Canada and Europe.

The brief trip occurs as U.S. President Donald Trump slaps tariffs on countries globally and talk of market diversification intensifies. However, the EU ambassadors’ visit was planned beforehand, Lüttenberg said.

“I think it’s just underlining the importance of that mission that we are doing,” he continued. “We feel that, with all these changes going on … (this trip is) a very strong signal to say that, yes, we hear you when you say, ‘We want to diversify our trade routes.’

“We also would like to diversify.”

Lüttenberg has an eye on hydrogen and wind energy. Germany stopped buying natural gas from Russia following its war on Ukraine, which began in 2022. Since then, the Germans have been altering their energy mix.

“Here, I see some potential,” Lüttenberg said during an interview at the Manitoba Club in Winnipeg. “We are very ambitious in reducing the fossil footprint of our energy mix.”

Forty-three per cent of European Union exports to Manitoba come from Germany, Lüttenberg said. Germany was Canada’s largest merchandise export market in the European Union in 2023.

That year, Canadian exports to Germany totalled $7.1 billion. German imports to Canada amounted to $24.9 billion. Agricultural products and car parts are among the items being exchanged between the two countries.

Lüttenberg believes the trade still has “huge potential” to grow.

He listed zinc, lithium and nickel as Manitoba resources Germany could be interested in. The Port of Churchill is something to seriously consider, Lüttenberg added.

Whether Germany moves away from the U.S. depends on the Trump administration’s next actions, Lüttenberg said. Germany and fellow European Union countries are currently affected by U.S. tariffs on vehicles, steel and aluminum.

“There’s certainly an opening for other markets,” Lüttenberg said. “Our doors are wide open.”

He’ll be joined in Winnipeg by ambassadors and high commissioners from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Kinew will hold opening remarks with the EU’s ambassador to Canada this morning.

“For us to say that we’re starting up a trade corridor to the North and into the Arctic is going to be very exciting for our EU visitors,” Kinew said Monday at an unrelated news conference, referencing the Port of Churchill.

Ships can reach the massive port in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, more quickly than through a Thunder Bay, Ont., port, Kinew added.

A swath of business associations and chambers are slated to meet the European delegation during the lunch hour Tuesday.

“With the instability in our trade partner to the south, it’s never been more important to diversify our markets,” said Bram Strain, chief executive of the Business Council of Manitoba.

The council, which represents 110 companies, is co-hosting Tuesday’s meet with Economic Development Winnipeg. Strain expects roughly 100 people to gather.

Showcasing Manitoba’s critical mineral and manufacturing sectors, among others, are on the agenda. Determining the eastern countries’ interests in future trade and investment will also be a priority, Strain said.

“Even if there weren’t tariffs, etc., it’s very important to explore other markets,” he continued. “The European Union is a massive market and one … that we have close ties with, so we should be strengthening those.”

Come this evening, the European ambassadors will visit the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce and dozens of member businesses.

Indigenous retail, tourism and traditional foods will be highlighted, as will clean energy, said chamber president Renee Greyeyes. There are plenty of Indigenous businesses supporting Manitoba’s mining and minerals sector — an industry Europe has obvious interest in, she added. “These nation-to-nation relationships, if they’re built on trust and partnership, I can see this being beneficial to all Canadians and also the Indigenous people.”

However, Greyeyes is cautious: Indigenous nations must be seen and treated as nations — including in mineral and resource projects — unlike in the past, she emphasized.

“If you’re wanting that partnership, you’re talking with us,” Greyeyes said. “They have to keep that in mind.”

Touring CentrePort Canada and the North American Aerospace Defense Command are part of the delegates’ two-day itinerary. The group has several joint outreach activities planned this year, per a news release, and it’s taking a “Team Europe” approach to its Winnipeg trip.

Lüttenberg spent Monday focused on German language and heritage preservation in Manitoba.

The day included meeting with ministers and visiting the University of Manitoba, he said. Lüttenberg began his role last week; he shares the position with wife Tjorven Bellmann, who spent the last eight months as ambassador.

— with files from Carol Sanders

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com