Portage-Lisgar Member of Parliament Candice Bergen held a roundtable Saturday in Portage la Prairie.

Bergen met with Randy Hoback, MP for the riding of Prince Albert, and Critic for the opposition Canada-U.S. relations, as well as Portage MLA Ian Wishart at her Portage office. A lot of things were discussed including NAFTA, free trade, the border crossing, and illegal immigrants.

"We were talking about how people/farmers would be affected locally if NAFTA were to be ripped up tomorrow," says Bergen. "And many businesses haven't given it any thought because they've become so used to the good relationship we have with America. So as an MP I'm reaching out to them to see if they're prepared, not fear-mongering, because we don't want companies or people worried, but just to be prepared if something does happen."

Hoback says Canada/US relations has a variety of levels to it, including the business to business relationship, the President, and Prime Minister relationship, and the member of the house/senate relationship.

"We've been doing business amongst ourselves for so many years we're just taking it for granted," says Hoback. "When you look at the parliament relationship, it's actually a very good relationship as well. They get that we're intertwined, we're each other's best friends, so that's very good. The Prime Minister and the President actually have a good relationship as well. I don't expect them to be best friends but we do expect him to be able to give him a call if it's needed."

Hoback adds it's important for businesses that work closely with other businesses across the border to be speaking up about the partnership and how it works.

Bergen adds the number one customer for 38 states in the US is Canada, so they need to speak up about the positive relationship with Canada. She adds Justin Trudeau's also going to need to focus on the border crossing and illegal immigrants as well.

"If that continues the US will at some point say that it's a problem because people they don't think should be in their country are being harbored in Canada. Trudeau doesn't seem to be willing to address a couple of issues, and he's probably exacerbating the problem by doing things like tweeting out 'Everybody is welcome to Canada, free health care. Come on in'. So we talked about a lot here which is what needs to be done more."