ManitobaWab Kinew’s NDP government has extended a $15-million loan guarantee to a company controlled by Arthur DeFehr of Palliser Furniture.Move made to ‘protect Manitoba jobs’ from Donald Trump, business and trade minister saysBartley Kives · CBC News · Posted: Aug 29, 2025 6:02 PM EDT | Last Updated: 10 hours agoThe interior of a former EQ3 store in Winnipeg. The province has extended a $15-million loan guarantee to a company associated with EQ3 parent company Palliser Furniture. (Rudy Gauer/CBC)The Manitoba government has extended a $15-million loan guarantee to a company controlled by Arthur DeFehr of Palliser Furniture.On Aug. 20, Premier Wab Kinew’s cabinet authorized Finance Minister Adrien Sala to extend the guarantee to repay up to $15 million worth of debt owed by Lexington Real Estate Holdings Ltd. to Access Credit Union, according to a provincial order in council.Lexington is an investment and holding company directed by DeFehr, whose family started the company that would become Manitoba-based Palliser Furniture in 1944.The NDP government did not announce the loan guarantee. It is intended to allow Palliser Furniture to survive Canada-U.S. trade uncertainties, said Jamie Moses, Manitoba’s minister for business, mining, trade and job creation.”As Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to threaten Canada’s economy, it is important to protect Manitoba jobs and help Manitoba companies expand their presence in Canada and the rest of the world,” Moses told CBC in a statement Thursday.Palliser Furniture is headquartered in Winnipeg, where it operates a manufacturing facility, one EQ3-branded retail store at Polo Park shopping centre and a Palliser/EQ3 factory outlet in the Transcona area. The company also operates 11 other EQ3 retail stores elsewhere in Canada, according to its website.Palliser CEO Peter Tielmann did not respond to requests for comments prior to the publication of this story.Earlier this year, he told the Winnipeg Free Press his company exports 60 per cent of the products it manufactures to the United States.In 2024, the company closed its remaining EQ3 stores in the United States, several furniture retail trade publications reported.According to the provincial order in council, Sala authorized the Manitoba Development Corporation — a provincial agency that provides loans, guarantees and investments intended to foster economic development — to determine the terms and conditions of the provincial loan guarantee for Lexington.No funds will be paid out until the Manitoba Development Corporation is due to be pay Access Credit Union, according to the forthcoming terms and conditions.
Manitoba extends $15M loan guarantee to Palliser Furniture-associated company
