Opening up opportunities at home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/08/2019 (1930 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The latest blast of pre-election funding from the federal government will inject $12 million into four initiatives, all of which have the potential for meaningful, long-term effects on economic development in the province.

Western Economic Diversification Canada announced project funding on Friday for trade development, scale-up support for business, partnerships between industry and academic institutions and a heavy-vehicle technology centre.

While the four streams do not have specific interplay between them, they all will assist in bolstering existing activities with the goal of creating more growth for the future.

Winnipeg MP and International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr said the projects are part of an integrated set of ideas and polices.

“Government can’t do very much by itself.” Carr said. “Governments can offer incentives, partnerships, investments, but ultimately, the engine of economic growth lies with the entrepreneurs and the private sector.”

Earlier this year, the federal government released a plan for long-term economic-development strategies for the region called Grow West: The Western Canada Growth Strategy. It focused on four broad concepts —diversification, trade, skills and communities.

The recipients of the funding announced Friday will all have some effect on those areas.

Harvest Venture Builder Inc. received close to $5 million to set up a pan-Prairie business accelerator. It is a new enterprise headed by Chris Simair, co-founder of SkipTheDishes. The concept is to build a business accelerator that will leverage the critical mass of ideas, entrepreneurs and existing capital across the three Prairie provinces to help businesses based here scale up without having to move to Toronto, Vancouver or Silicon Valley. The venture will open offices in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Calgary to start, with plans to open more in the future.

“This is a way to ensure that we get opportunities for the talent that we have grown in the Prairies to keep them home,” Simair said.

Harvest Venture Builder will try to fill the gap for companies, for instance, after they grow out of startup support services offered by organizations like North Forge Technology Exchange and Manitoba Technology Accelerator.

As it proves the concept and attracts entrepreneurs with businesses, it will raise venture capital.

“I believe there is no shortage of capital in the Prairies,” Simair said. “We just need to identify the right type of capital and the right opportunities to invest.”

The University of Manitoba will receive up to $2,200,000 in funding to facilitate industry-academia collaboration to support economic development in Manitoba in partnership with other Manitoba post-secondary institutions and the Business Council of Manitoba.

It is a project that will focus on creating a database of research capabilities that exist at each of the post-secondary institutions in the province and will become a resource to help establish even more collaborations with the private sector.

The project will also have a student employment component, where the collaborations will create more opportunities for co-op placements and work-experience opportunities. Digvir Jayas, vice-president of research and international at U of M, said efforts will be made to specifically identify more Indigenous students to take advantage of co-op and internship opportunities.

Don Leitch, CEO of the Business Council of Manitoba, has been working for some time on strengthening partnerships between his members — which include the largest private-sector employers in the province — and the post-secondary institutions.

The World Trade Centre Winnipeg will receive close to $2 million to do a deep dive into the areas of the provincial economy that would most likely find opportunities in export markets, and also to target the likely international trading partners that would work with them. The general thinking is that since companies that export are more profitable and pay higher wages, growing the pool of exporters will have a positive effect on the province’s GDP in general.

“The approved funding will further allow Manitoba businesses to innovate, grow and compete internationally,” said Diane Gray, co-chair of the board of directors of World Trade Centre Winnipeg

Red River College will receive $3 million to increase technology adoption and testing capabilities at its MotiveLab for heavy-vehicle manufacturers in collaboration with industry partners and the Vehicle Technology Centre.

Since Winnipeg is home to North America’s largest bus manufacturer, NFI Group Inc., as well as several large agricultural-equipment and fire-truck manufacturers, the work will help those industries innovate.

“This investment in vehicle-technology-related capabilities and facilities at the college will enable us to better support the needs of Manitoba’s heavy-vehicle sector to develop new products and get them to market faster,” said Ray Hoemsen, executive director of research partnerships and innovation at Red River College.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca