City of Winnipeg may cancel U.S. organization membership, nix funding for American business trips

A Winnipeg city councillor wants the city to sever its ties to a U.S. organization and stop reimbursing some travel expenses south of the border.

The City of Winnipeg is looking into the possibility of cancelling its membership with an American organization and putting a stop to travel expense funding for certain business trips to the United States.

Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona) has put forward a motion recommending the city immediately cancel its membership with the North American Strategy for Competitiveness (NASCO) – a Texas-based American free trade organization. It notes the membership costs the city $30,000 a year, plus related travel costs.

The motion also suggests that the city stop paying any expenses related to travel to the United States for the Red River Basin Commission – an organization working to achieve water protection within the Red River Basin.

The reports explains that because the city is a member of this commission, ratepayers are funding councillors’ trips into the United States just south of the Manitoba border. The motion describes this as an “insult to all the hardworking Canadians who have implemented their embargo on travel into the United States.”

The report highlights that since U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st state, some Canadians have opted out of personal and business travel to the neighbouring country.

The motion adds that the Canadian economy has been negatively impacted by Trump’s decision to place tariffs on Canadian made goods, saying that the City of Winnipeg has been “completely out of step with the Canadian people.”

The motion will go before city council on Jan. 29. The full report is available online.