The Economy

Manitoba is a developed, diverse and dynamic economy.

Key components of Manitoba’s diversified economy:
Manufacturing | Financial Services | Agriculture | Hydro-electricity | Natural Resources

Manitoba has of the most diversified economies in Canada, with stable economic growth and one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates.

Although Manitoba is rich in natural resources and fertile farmland, the provincial economy is not dependent on any single industry or commodity. In fact, studies by Moody’s Investors Services of New York have shown that Winnipeg has one of Canada’s most diverse urban economies. This diversity leads to an unemployment rate that is consistently among the lowest in Canada.

The diverse manufacturing base – which includes aerospace materials, buses, building products, machinery, furniture, apparel, electronics, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and processed foods – allows Manitoba’s economy to prosper even when prices for cyclical commodities decline. To illustrate, while provincial farm cash receipts had declined in 2006, manufacturing shipments had increased, resulting in real GDP growth for 2006 that exceeded the national average.

Our province is a major force in exporting goods around the world. Leading export markets – after the United States – are Japan, China/Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Belgium, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Manufacturing

Aerospace components, buses, furniture, farm equipment, windows, clothing and outerwear – Manitoba makes it all – and makes more of it all the time.

High productivity and access to a skilled and reliable workforce help Manitoba’s manufacturing exports to grow and encourage export-driven expansion. Some of the more well-known firms enjoying success in Manitoba’s thriving business environment are:

• New Flyer Industries is the major supplier to the North American urban transit bus market. The company is the leader in bringing new innovations to market, including diesel/electric hybrid technology.

• Biovail Corporation, is one of the largest Canadian-owned pharmaceutical companies in the world. The firm recently completed a $28 million expansion of its Manitoba-based biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in Steinbach. This expansion is in addition to a recently completed $44 million expansion at the same facility.

• Winnipeg’s Vansco Electronics is a manufacturer of electronic components for OEM customers. Founded in 1978, Vansco has grown to over 1,000 employees, with production facilities in Canada, the US and Finland, and sales/service offices in the U.K., Belgium, and Australia.

• Manitoba is a leading centre of excellence in the Canadian printing industry, with world leaders in the printing of airline tickets (Datamark Systems) and lottery tickets (Pollard Banknote), who produce goods for clients around the globe from their operations in Winnipeg. And just south of Winnipeg in Altona, Friesens Corporation is Canada's largest hardcover book printer. With investments in new equipment that average $7 million annually, it has become the most modern book-printing plant in the world.

• Cangene Corporation, a world leader in specialty hyper-immune plasma and biotechnology products has been awarded a number of contracts by the U.S. government to develop drugs to respond to potential biological attacks, with recent contracts valued at over $500 million. The firm also produces WinRho, the substance given to Rh-negative pregnant women around the world to prevent potentially fatal Rh disease in their children.

• Standard Aero Limited is one of the world’s largest independent gas turbine engine and accessories maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities. Based in Winnipeg, with operations around the globe, it provides a unique mix of management and MRO services to airline, business aviation, helicopter, government/military aircraft, and industrial operators.

• The furniture manufacturing sector, which produces annual shipments in excess of $ 550 million, is led by Palliser Furniture, Canada’s leading producer of high-quality leather furniture.

Financial Services

Canada’s largest mutual fund company and largest insurance company are the cornerstones of our financial services sector.

• Winnipeg-based IGM Financial Inc. has more than $119 billion under management.

• Great-West Lifeco Inc. operates subsidiaries in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, with over $210 billion in combined assets under management. Through its Great West Life Assurance Company – Canada’s largest insurance company – and its subsidiaries, it serves the financial security needs of 12 million Canadians.

Agriculture

Manitoba’s rich soil and clear skies – plus the energy and innovation of its agricultural community – allow a province with four per cent of Canada’s people to produce ten per cent of the nation’s agricultural products.

Livestock accounts for 48 per cent of market receipts; crops – including canola, wheat, flax, other grains and vegetables – account for 52 per cent.

But the agricultural sector does more than just produce the raw materials. Manitoba’s food products sector is one of our largest industries, turning primary goods into packaged french fries, cooking oil, and processed meats.

Increasingly, Manitoba’s agricultural products are processed in Manitoba, creating more value-added employment and spin-offs in the construction and trucking industries. The agricultural biotechnology industry is also growing in Manitoba, as researchers strive to develop new crops and new uses for existing crops.

• Maple Leaf Foods operates a hog processing plant near Brandon that is one of the largest and most advanced facilities of its kind in North America.

• Manitoba has long been the centre of the grain trade and is the headquarters of Cargill Canada, Parrish and Heimbecker and James Richardson and Sons, plus ICE Futures Canada, and the Canadian Wheat Board.

• As Canada’s second-largest producer of potatoes, Manitoba is home to major French fry plants owned by McCain Foods Limited and a $120 million potato processing plant developed by J.R. Simplot Company.

See also Business Facts: Manitoba Economy

Hydro-electricity

Powered by Manitoba Hydro’s reliable, renewable and low cost electricity, Manitoba has a definite energy advantage in comparison to other North American jurisdictions.

Manitoba has abundant hydroelectric capacity, the lowest published rates in North America, and enjoys high system reliability and superior power quality. Annual industry surveys by Hydro Quebec have consistently shown that Manitoba is the most competitive in terms of published electrical rates for large industrial customers.

Natural Resources

The dramatic rock outcroppings in Northern Manitoba’s Canadian Shield country are a sign of one of the province’s great natural resources.

Mining is the second-largest primary industry in Manitoba, with $2.6 billion in annual production, directly employing some 6,500 people, particularly in the North. Mines produce base and precious metals, such as nickel, zinc, copper, gold, and industrial minerals like tantalum, cesium, dolomite, spodumene, gypsum, salt, dimension stone, limestone, peat, lime, crushed rock, sand and gravel aggregate. There is potential to mine platinum-group elements (platinum, palladium and rhodium), rare earth elements, uranium, titanium, vanadium, chromite, silica and potash. Potential also exists for the exploitation of Manitoba’s abundant ultramafic rocks, which could become important in the future in the sequestration of carbon dioxide. Additionally, the province has issued exploration permits to several companies searching for diamonds in Manitoba.

The primary wood product industry generates $550 million in annual sales, and directly employs 3,300 persons. Additionally, Manitoba’s building products industry, which produces a variety of value-added products using wood as the principal raw material, generates $1.4 billion in annual sales and employs 13,000 persons. The primary wood and building products industries are both intensely export oriented, with principal markets in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Building product manufacturers include Kitchen Craft Cabinetry and the two largest Canadian window and door manufacturers, >Loewen Windows and Willmar Windows. Furniture manufacturing is led by Palliser Furniture, Canada’s leading producer of high-quality leather furniture.

Manitoba’s abundant lakes are not only recreational resources. They are the basis of a freshwater fishery that annually produces over 13 million kg of fish, including walleye, mullet, whitefish, pike, sauger and a local delicacy called goldeye. Commercial production is exported throughout North America. The fishery directly employs about 2,200 licensed fishermen and 1,000 hired helpers, and creates indirect employment for numerous shore hands and transport and processing workers.

For millennia, Manitoba’s wildlife has been a crucial natural resource for the First Nations. It is still a valuable resource, both for the guiding and outfitting industry, and the growing ecotourism sector, which attracts tourists from around the world to Churchill on Hudson’s Bay to see polar bear and beluga whales.

See Manitoba Conservation | Business Facts: Manitoba Economy

See also Business Facts: Manitoba Economy