Parliamentary Secretary Alghabra announces investments to help businesses access new markets and create good middle-class jobs in Quebec
News release
May 22, 2019 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
Canada’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the engine that drives economic prosperity and creates jobs for the middle class. Opening new markets and expanding existing international markets are central to Canada’s trade diversification strategy, which aims to propel Canadian businesses to tap into new markets, reach new customers and create new jobs.
Omar Alghabra, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Diversification, was in Montréal and Laval, Quebec, to highlight the $100-million expansion of the CanExport SME program and meet with companies that have benefited from this program to grow their exports. Since 2016, the CanExport SME program has supported 586 projects with companies across Quebec, for a total of $18.5 million, helping these companies access new export opportunities and reach their global potential.
Parliamentary Secretary Alghabra met with Quebec companies who have received CanExport funding to help increase their exports, including M1 Composites, a company that specializes in engineering, certification, manufacturing and repair for commercial and defence aerospace sectors. He also met with employees from MedXL, a manufacturer of medical devices and prefilled syringes for biomedical and pharmaceutical industries worldwide.
The Parliamentary Secretary visited Emovi, a company offering medical solutions for joints assessments. Emovi has leveraged both the CanExport program and the Trade Commissioner Service to expand into markets abroad.
The CanExport expansion invests a total of $1.1 billion over six years to help Canadian companies succeed. With these investments, the government continues to make Canada the most well-connected trading economy worldwide while creating more jobs at home.
Quotes
“Canada’s small and medium-sized enterprises are wealth and job creators that support the middle class and the people working hard to join it. The investments we are making today will further support Canadian businesses and communities by connecting people, ideas and products to customers around the world.”
- Omar Alghabra, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Diversification
“We are extremely proud to have received financial support from the government through the CanExport program. This program aims to increase export activities, and it allowed us to make M1 Composites known internationally. For a growing company like ours, government financial support is of the utmost importance. This allowed us to create jobs, and we are continuing our growth!”
- Lorenzo Marandola, President, M1 Composites
“We at MedXL are proud to partner with the Government of Canada with support from the CanExport program, which assists us in developing new markets. This easy-to-use program has already had an important impact on our ability to open the United States and South East Asia markets. We expect to introduce more medical products in these two regions.”
- Paul Parisien, President, MedXL
Quick facts
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The 2018 Fall Economic Statement invested $100 million over six years to reinforce the CanExport program and related funding programs so that more Canadian businesses can explore new overseas markets, especially high-growth emerging markets and markets benefiting from free trade agreements such as the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
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To date, the CanExport program has supported more than 1,200 Canadian SMEs with 1,600 projects to expand their markets and increase export activities in more than 110 markets around the world.
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The 2018 Fall Economic Statement announced investments of $290 million over five years to help Canadian businesses export and grow and to strengthen the Trade Commissioner Service and enhance the support it provides to Canadian exporters.
Associated links
Contacts
Michael Jones
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of International Trade Diversification
343-550-2368
Michael.Jones@international.gc.ca
Media Relations Office
Global Affairs Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
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