BMO Experts at the 2024 US-Canada Summit

Darryl White:

I think it's been a great day, by the way. I've talked to people today and I look at the greatest takeaways that we have. We got opportunities here in the near term and in the long term that we've got to take care of. We've got the USMCA coming up in 2026, which is like waking up tomorrow morning. We've got longer term issues to tackle, like how are we going to press that competitive advantage that we have together against a reorganizing world. We've got critical mineral supply chain that needs serious framework in order to attract all the investment capital that we need to develop at the speed of batteries and decarbonization. The opportunities are endless. We've got the right people here today having the right conversation, so I think it's really exciting. 

Christine Cooper:

 I think for our customer base across Canada, U. S. is such a huge opportunity. Similar to BMO where it's been a huge opportunity. And what we see is that they're our closest neighbor. We have shared values, we have a trade agreement, and they are our largest trading partners. So when our clients want to grow, they want to grow by diversifying, going into the U. S. primarily. And there is just such a huge opportunity for that.

Nadim Hirji:

At BMO, we've been leveraging our industry expertise and local market knowledge to help our customers grow their business and manage risk for over 200 years. We are a fully integrated North American commercial bank with major operations on both sides of the border. We're now one of the top five commercial banks in all of North America.
We take the long term view with our customers. We don't go for the quick win. Rather, we work with our customers, often over generations.

We partner closely with our capital markets and our wealth management colleagues to bring our entire suite of solutions to our customers. To our customers, thank you so much for your business. And to prospective customers looking to grow throughout North America, let us know how we can help you. Thank you.

David Jacobson:

Given some of the difficulties around the world, political difficulties, uh, military difficulties, instabilities around the world, it is particularly a good time to focus on investing in North America.  That we have the envy of the world in terms of political stability. We have a long history of the rule of law.

We have the longest border in the world and the longest undefended border.  And we have a workforce that is highly educated.  We have entrepreneurial activity in both countries. And those are the things, when businesses make their investment decisions, that are very, very important to them.

Mona Malone:

I'm enormously optimistic about the opportunities in terms of labour when I think about Canada and the U. S. I'm really looking forward to an exciting discussion with each of our panelists. They are recognized thought leaders in the evolution of work. From my perspective, there are a number of key takeaways.

First, we are seeing rapid technological advancements that are shifting tasks. This is creating more of a focus on skills.  We're also seeing five or more generations in the workplace. Who the workers are and how long they're staying is shifting. These factors have an opportunity to reshape industries.  We have an opportunity to think about our labor pools and build resiliency across our corporations, governments, and not for profit in Canada and the U. S.

Brian Tobin:

This is a relationship that is, uh, in two way trade.  Depending how you count it, anywhere from three quarters of a trillion to pushing a trillion dollars of trade. So it's, it's the most dynamic two way trade relationship in the world. And we can take it for granted, or we can treat it gingerly and carefully as we should, and be cheerleaders for continuing what has been one of the great success stories in global trade in the planet.

So if you want to do that, You've got to come together. You've got to give each other the time of day. You've got to understand each other's point of view and you've got to tread carefully on a relationship that  doesn't happen automatically. It needs to be nurtured. And that's what we're doing here.

We're nurturing that important relationship.