BMO Financial Group President and CEO Tony Comper, today called for a redoubling of the efforts to open the U.S. border to Canadian beef, and end the multi-billion-dollar-a-year BSE crisis that continues to beleaguer the Canadian cattle and agricultural industry.

Tony Comper told a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Winnipeg the bank has a clear picture of the financial impact the crisis has had on agricultural clients because it is the second biggest lender to the industry. “I know there has been lots of good effort to get the border re-opened, but let’s all push harder to get it done now,” Comper said.

Comper said BMO has offered relief to the beleaguered sector by deferring loan and mortgage payments, reducing interest rates on lines of credit and extending loan periods.

The measures echo those the bank implemented following devastating floods in Manitoba in 1997.

“While our assistance programs are designed to help clients through disasters of the natural kind, we have also effectively put them to work during economic downturns as well, whether they are local or national in scope,” Comper said.

The bank chief also outlined his group’s economic outlook for Manitoba’s economy, which was included in the bank’s Economic Outlook report that was to released today.

Manitoba appears poised to jump 3% growth in both this year and next after posting just 1.4% growth in gross domestic product in 2003.

Housing starts are expected to fall slightly next year, while the manufacturing sector should see “a substantial comeback: based on strong growth in the export of food and transportation equipment.

Employment growth is expected to gain steam from last year, with the province’s projected 5.2% jobless rate the second lowest in the country behind Alberta.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2004/21/c2836.html