With Winnipeg outperforming 26 major cities such as Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, and Phoenix (KPMG), many high-profile companies call CentrePort home: Boeing Canada, Magellan, Paterson Global Foods, Bison Transport, Winpak, and North West Company. This low-cost and location advantage has also helped to attract more than 30 new companies to CentrePort’s 20,000-acre footprint.
Located just one-hour north of the U.S. border at Pembina-Emerson, CentrePort offers direct access to a North American consumer population of 100 million living within a 24-hour drive, and is at the hub of international trade corridors heading in all directions, including south to the U.S. and Mexico and east-west along Canada’s Asia-Pacifi c Gateway.
CentrePort is particularly well positioned for companies servicing resource-rich developments including North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields (400 miles to Williston); Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” (438 miles to Thunder Bay); Saskatchewan’s potash region (356 miles to Regina); northern Manitoba’s hydro and mining developments (473 miles to Thompson); and Alberta’s oil sands (1,015 miles to Fort McMurray).
With Winnipeg being the nearest major city to the Bakken (population over 700,000), CentrePort offers big-city advantages such as abundant labor, a skilled workforce, and training incentives; competitive wages (15–25 percent lower than Ontario and Western Canada); and a diverse manufacturing industry of original equipment manufacturers, tier 1 suppliers, and secondary suppliers, making raw materials easier to source.
CentrePort also provides a clear transportation advantage — shipping to Williston from Winnipeg is 20 to 50 percent cheaper than from other regional centers’ cities (Chicago, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Denver, and Houston), while shipping times are up to 75 percent faster (comparison for a Canadian trucking company shipping LTL for 1,000- and 5,000-lb. pallets).
Being at CentrePort has other benefits — combined corporate taxes are 33 percent lower in Canada than the U.S., employee healthcare costs are government-funded, and Winnipeg has the lowest published energy costs in North America.
As Canada’s only tri-modal inland port, significant public investment has been made in improving highways. A new $212 million CentrePort expressway is now open and moving cargo more quickly and efficiently. CentrePort also features a 24/7 international cargo airport, and access to three class-one railways (CN, CP, and BNSF). The corporation is currently developing a common-use rail facility and adjacent industrial park for rail-intensive business.
With these advantages, industrial land at CentrePort is ideal for manufacturing and assembly, warehousing and distribution, agribusiness, food processing and packaging, and transportation-related logistics.
