From left, National Bank Financial wealth management president Jonathon Durocher, chief economist Stefane Marion and Western Canadian vice-president Patrice Cayer met with officials at the firm's local office on Tuesday, then attended a mixer with about 250 clients.--News photo Collin Gallant
@@CollinGallant
Canada has the ability to become stronger during trade conflict with the United States, but will have to get serious about building up a manufacturing base and realize the need for resource development, a chief economist for the National Bank of Canada told a Medicine Hat audience Tuesday.
“It’s not a lose-lose situation,” Stefane Marion, the company’s Calgary-based chief economist, told the News before a reception for 250 local clients of the investment firm’s Medicine Hat location.
“There are ways to manage these new roads that we are seeing – really they are not new, but we’ve forgotten about them.”
Marion joined Jonathon Durocher, president of the wealth management division, and senior vice-president Patrice Cayer, along with local wealth managers to help celebrate the fifth anniversary of the firm’s local office on First Street downtown.
National Bank Financial is the sixth largest lending institution in Canada, where much is made about the “Big Five Banks.”
This winter it completed the C$5.6-billion stock acquisition of Canada Western Bank and is now combining the two enterprises.
That is meant to bolster commercial lending in Western Canada, says Durocher, while the investment advisory branch of the business already has 29 branches west of Ontario and manages $32 billion on behalf of all its clients.
That includes Medicine Hat, where Durocher said the partnership has been fruitful.
“We’ve made a consistent effort to have members of the National leadership team come to Medicine Hat,” he said. “We’re big believers in the (investment) side of the business, that it’s a longevity business and built on trust.”
Local clients took part in a meet-and-greet and mixer with investment managers and head office officials.
The local office’s opening in the summer of 2020 was also marked by large amounts of uncertainty and investor worry.
“It was a challenging time, but a time when people were focusing on the future, their wealth portfolios with some skepticism and worry (due to the pandemic),” said Mark Dumanowski, a wealth adviser at the local firm along with Blaine Kunz, Sam Dumanowski, Calvin MacPhail, Connelly Sherwick and Eric Van Enk.
“It was a great opportunity to bring clients to what’s been a wonderful transition,” said Dumanowski.
Five years later a level of uncertainty is again high as North American trade disruption threatens to hamper economic activity and disrupt markets in both the U.S. and Canada.
Marion says that in order to fare better, Canada could build its manufacturing sector to correct “structural” problems in the Canadian economy. But it will need to rely heavily on major critical inputs such as natural gas and electricity production, and investor confidence will need to be managed.
“The next federal budget will have to be very credible,” he concluded, in order to shore up investment sentiment.
Of specific interest to Western Canadians, he says that due to the rise in the price of gold to record highs, its monthly Canadian export figures from Canada are now eclipsing agricultural exports. Meanwhile, a trade surplus that is largely attributable to oil exports is supporting the value of the Canadian dollar, which can drag on other overseas sales income.
Durocher says when the macro-economic landscape becomes unsettled, worry is felt at the ground level.
“It really puts a lot of stress on families and individuals,” he said. “All they want to know is whether they are going to be OK.
“It gives the need to plan (financially) new meaning.”
