Modern, Developed Infrastructure

Manitoba’s communication, transportation and public service infrastructure allow our province’s globally competitive businesses to concentrate on what they do best.

• MTS, the Manitoba-based telecommunications company operates a network that provides access to high-speed Internet to 85 per cent of Manitoba households, making Manitoba one of the most broadband-enabled provinces in the country. With three fibre rings in Winnipeg and one in Brandon, and 100 per cent digital switching throughout the province, MTS allows businesses in every corner of Manitoba to be only a mouse click from the world.

• Additionally, MTS has a 1xRTT wireless network that covers 97 per cent of Manitoba’s population. 1xRTT provides the capacity to support leading-edge high-speed wireless data transfer, picture messaging and WAP 2.0 – a standard which provides colour and enhanced graphics for Internet access over a cellular telephone.

• Additionally, in 2006 MTS launched its new 1xEV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) 3G wireless network in Winnipeg and Brandon. This next generation wireless technology offers data download rates of up to 2.4 Mbps – with average speeds up to five times faster than currently available.

• A competitive telecommunications environment, with several alternative long-distance carriers, keeps rates low in Manitoba and our location in the Central Time Zone gives Manitoba business-hours access to east and west coasts.

MTS operates a network that provides access to high-speed Internet to 85 per cent of Manitoba households, making Manitoba one of the most broadband-enabled provinces in the country.

Manitoba’s roads link to the north, south, east and west

• Provincial Highways 75 and 59 lead one hour south to link with the U.S. National Highway System via North Dakota and Minnesota, providing access to a mid-continent trade and transportation corridor that connects Manitoba to a central North American market of 100 million people. Highway 75 is twinned to the U.S. border. Goods can be shipped by truck from Canada to Mexico and all points between, via US Interstate highways I-29 and I-35.

• East-west access is via the Trans Canada Highway 1 and the northern Yellowhead Highway. The Trans-Canada Highway is fully twinned from the Ontario Boundary to the Saskatchewan Boundary.

• Major border crossings to the U.S. are open 24 hours per day, and an automated border crossing at Emerson, Manitoba, enables standard wait times of 10 minutes or less even as it is the 2nd busiest land border crossing in Western Canada, and the 8th busiest nationally.

• In 2007, Manitoba announced an unprecedented investment of $4 billion in a 10-year plan to renew Manitoba’s highways.

Other aspects of Manitoba’s infrastructure are continuously improved.

• The City of Winnipeg is proceeding with a plan to construct a new $200 million water treatment plant to ensure the continued purity and reliability of water supplies.

See Manitoba's Highway Renwal Plan | Business Facts: Industrial Sites