Western Business Coalition pushes for provincial nominee increases

More immigrants and fewer regulatory burdens have been on Bram Strain’s advocacy agenda this week.

The Business Council of Manitoba president joined peers from the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce and the Business Councils of British Columbia and Alberta in Ottawa. The group formed the Western Business Coalition last year. They returned to Parliament Hill on Monday and Tuesday.

“If we’re going to do major projects — whether it be Churchill, whether it be mining, ag, et cetera — we’re going to need extra workers on top of continuing to work with our domestic folks,” Strain said Tuesday.

He and colleagues have been pushing for increases to provincial nominee program numbers in “every single meeting,” he added.

Manitoba has an allocation of 8,000 nominees this year — 6,239 granted by the federal government in January, and another 1,761 in August.

It follows recent cuts: the allocation dropped to 4,750 in 2025 from 9,500 in 2024.

Strain said he’d like to see Manitoba’s workforce be majority domestic — 70 per cent — with the latter 30 per cent coming from immigration and job growth.

Bolstering workforce participation among local youth, Indigenous and other marginalized groups is a priority, he added.

“We’ve had a very positive response,” Strain said of ministers’ reactions. “There’s a great understanding that there needs to be a greater say for specific labour markets like Manitoba.”

The Western Business Coalition met with federal internal trade, industry, agriculture and transport ministers. They also booked meetings with the minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s chief of staff, Winnipeg South Centre MP Ben Carr and approximately 20 Tory caucus members.

The Liberal government introduced Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, during the coalition’s visit. It’s a wide-ranging bill for fast-tracking major project approvals and cutting review times.

Members of the Western Business Coalition, including Strain, applauded the proposed legislation.

Prabha Ramaswamy, the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive, called the bill “meaningful progress” in a news release.

Fast-tracked approvals should have “no slippage” of Indigenous consultations and participation and environmental assessments, Strain said.

But redundancies within the regulatory process should be removed, he continued. The Western Business Coalition spoke to ministers about reducing federal regulatory requirements by 25 per cent over three years.

Some of their previous asks were addressed in Bill C-39, including one-year review timelines for advancing major projects and creating a special mediator for federally regulated labour disputes.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com