Manitoba's now a member of the New West Partnership, and that came as no surprise to Portage la Prairie Mayor Irvine Ferris.

The provincial government announced Thursday it was entering the pact with Canada's three other western provinces -- Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. -- to reduce trade barriers and create a combined market of more than 11 million people with an estimated GDP of over $750-billion.

Mayor Ferris says the Portage Chamber of Commerce was a supporter of enter the trade agreement, and lobbied for it. Ferris says he doesn't expect it will have a large impact on most local businesses.

"But we do have some larger construction and engineering firms that do work from time to time outside of the area," Ferris says. "This could be an advantage to them."

At the same time, Ferris says it's possible there could be increased competition from companies outside the province for work in the area.

"We could see in theory, companies from Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C., coming in and competing with Portage companies for work in Portage and Manitoba," he says. "Putting out tenders, they may become more competitive."

"And that also gets into the buy local idea, debated in council from time to time, when local companies aren't necessarily successful on bidding for jobs," continues Ferris. "The knife cuts both ways on that one."