2022 was a special year for us but before we share some of the highlights, we first want to say thank you to everyone who contributed to our community either as a member, guest, partner, social media follower or e-publication subscriber. Your membership, partnership and engagement made it possible for us to continue to pursue our mission celebrating the trade, investment and entrepreneurship ties that Canada and the United States share together.
A Community of Chapters
2022 meant more opportunities to meet in person with the inaugural events of our MAPLE Ontario and Colorado Chapters and our first in-person program by MAPLE New York given that we launched in NY in the middle of the pandemic. Our B.C. and Southern California Chapters also returned to in-person events.
Our community now spans five Chapters. In addition to our MAPLE “home” in Southern California since 2015, we are excited to also welcome you in British Columbia, Ontario, New York, and Colorado.
In 2022, we had the pleasure of launching MAPLE Ontario led by our first woman Executive Director, Bernardine Perreira CFP® TEP of Perreira Wealth Advisory Raymond James in Toronto. Bernardine is a long-term member who regularly participated in our Southern California events for years. Now she leads our Ontario Chapter from her base in Toronto which has been home to many of our members since our founding. Our inaugural event as a MAPLE Ontario Chapter in September, hosted by the Business Development Bank of Canada in downtown Toronto, was one of the highlights of our year.
Our Colorado Chapter soon followed with a dynamic and packed launch event in Denver which included presentations by Consul General of Canada Sylvain Fabi, former Canadian Ambassador to the U.S., Derek Burney Sr., and Will Kinzel, VP Government Affairs at Molson Coors. Ambassaor Burney's reflections on a lifetime of service from the center of the room will not soon be forgotten.
Our thanks to Executive Director Rob Mancey, who also chairs the Canada Colorado Association, and Derek Godfrey whose own move from SoCal to Colorado helped inspire this Chapter, for all their hard work in launching MAPLE in the Centennial State. We also want to thank the economic development community and in particular the Consulate General of Canada in Denver for your warm welcome!
Our New York Chapter led by John Costanzo hosted terrific programs throughout the year once again including a panel discussion on getting your goods to Canada with supply chain experts. The capstone event came in early December at the Québec Government Office in New York at Rockefeller Center. Thank you to Delegate General Martine Hébert and her New York leadership team.
Our West Coast presence is bookended by our British Columbia Chapter led by Executive Director Jason Tse in Vancouver and our home base in Southern California. Jason hosted a fascinating discussion on the metaverse with Vancouver studios and our BC Chapter was honoured to partner with the U.S. Commercial Service in Canada later in the spring to co-host a SelectUSA InvesTech Summit at Fasken’s Vancouver office for area tech companies. After U.S. Consul General D. Brent Hardt opened the program, a roster of speakers from our MAPLE community shared insights on growing your business in the U.S. Later in the year, our friends at Air Canada welcomed us to their Operations Center at YVR for a special tour of their facility after presentations by Roland DGA and Corpay.
Here in Southern California at our events in Orange County and Los Angeles, we explored trade and investment considerations for expanding into Québec, global IP portfolio management, opportunities for Southern California businesses in Ontario, the Southern California commercial real estate landscape through the expert lens of Avison Young, opportunities for businesses Io invest and grow in Alberta, and public venture capital opportunities on the TSX Venture and TSX exchanges in Canada.
Thank you to all our Chapter Executive Directors for their work supporting our Canada-U.S. bilateral economic focus.
Storytelling
The strength of any community is often found in the opportunity to learn from one another - helping to inform our own strategies and plans. In 2022, we had the pleasure of not only hosting presentations from our members but sharing their insights through our e-publication, MOMENTUM, which just celebrated its 70th issue, and in our online video series, Conversations, which now has more than 60 episodes.
In May, we launched a new home for our members’ and partner’s insights with over 100 pieces of content from MAPLE articles, interviews, and videos. Our Cross-border Insights website is an online library of reference information across sectors and markets. If you have not visited it yet, we encourage you to check it out at maplecouncilinsights.org.
Membership
Cross-sector membership is a key part of our DNA. In support of our mission, we bring executives, investors, service providers, entrepreneurs and economic development stakeholders from government and business together to network and share insights. Meeting fellow innovators and leaders from other sectors can create new opportunities and solutions. In 2022, we welcomed new members, from young professionals and established executives to corporations and institutions, who are working in 7 provinces and states in 11 sectors. Today, our membership spans more than 25 sectors.
Diversity Equity and Inclusion
Our DEI journey continued in 2022 by leveraging our content platforms to hear from a range of leaders who are making a difference in our communities. These leaders are connecting the voices of minority-owned businesses in Greater Los Angeles with their audiences, celebrating the diverse Latin communities in British Columbia, helping businesses achieve greater diversity in their supply chain, sharing their own immigration journey to Canada, and celebrating diversity in their organization through employee affinity groups. We encourage you to visit our DEI page on our website and the MOMENTUM page of our website for these and more stories.
There’s much more we could share but since our first event is already upon us this week, as our BC Chapter tours the Vancouver port, we invite you to join us at one of our programs in 2023.
We look forward to welcoming you and thank you for your support and participation.
January 2023