Pritzker heading to Canada to discuss trade opportunities
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is north of the border for a four-day trade mission in hopes of garnering stronger economic ties with Canada.
The governor will give the keynote address at the 2024 U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto and hold meetings with business and government leaders between Monday and Thursday. He will be joined on the trip by state economic development leaders with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Intersect Illinois, the state’s public-private business attraction organization.
“For generations, the people of Canada and the people of Illinois have been connected in more ways than one,” Pritzker said in a news release. “As each of our economies grow and evolve, we have remained reliable partners to one another.”
Pritzker’s first international trade mission this year, following trips to the United Kingdom and Switzerland last year, will key-in on what have been major economic development priorities of his — electric vehicles and quantum technology.
Both are represented in the budget package he signed last week with $500 million going towards the development of a quantum campus and the creation of an incentive program to purchase electric school buses or trucks. Depending on the vehicle, eligible EV purchasers could receive anywhere from a $7,500 to $120,000 grant from the state.
The delegation will tour the Lion Electric headquarters in Montreal, an electric vehicle manufacturer who opened the nation’s largest EV facility in Joliet last July, and North America’s largest urban innovation hub, MaRS Discovery District, to discuss potential quantum investments.
According to the state commerce department, Canada is the largest foreign trade partner for Illinois. Together, they engaged in $92 billion — Illinois exporting $24.4 billion to Canada and importing $67.9 billion — in bilateral trade in 2022. The state mostly imported Canadian oil and gas, topping $53.5 billion, while exports of transportation equipment, machinery, chemicals and food and kindred products grew by 30% from 2021.
More than 370 Canadian companies are located in Illinois that employ approximately 32,000 workers in the state.
Contact Patrick M. Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.