Lots more money to promote Winnipeg
Destination Winnipeg's budget expected to double, thanks to accommodation taxes
By: Martin Cash
Destination Winnipeg's budget may increase by more than 50 per cent this year because of contributions made by the city from its new accommodation tax.
Destination Winnipeg officials say the additional funding -- including up to $1 million for a sports and special events fund -- makes sense because the city has a lot more to sell.
Nick Logan says events Destination Winnipeg attracts have a significant economic impact on the city.
Nick Logan says events Destination Winnipeg attracts have a significant economic impact on the city. (MIKE.DEAL@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)
At the economic development agency's annual general meeting Thursday, its CEO, Stuart Duncan, said the city is punching above its weight in terms of its marketing successes.
"Sitting back in 2003, you would not have thought we would be where we are now," he said. "There has been some interesting momentum. The city is on a roll and it is getting recognized for it. The more that's happening, the more we have to market."
The organization's total budget for 2008 was $3.3 million, including $1.3 million from the city. This year, the city's contribution will come in the form of 30 per cent of the controversial accommodation tax, which is expected to be about $2.1 million.
In addition, that new tax revenue is going to be partially used to create a discrete fund -- up to $1 million per year -- that Destination Winnipeg will be able to apply towards bidding for and acquiring national and major sporting and special events.
Duncan said the existence of the fund will allow for quicker and more aggressive bidding on projects. He said it has already been used towards securing the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships that took place last month in Winnipeg and the national junior soccer championships that will be held here in October.
"You can already see that this is not a fund that is just going to sit there," he said.
Nick Logan, CEO of National Leasing and chairman of the board of Destination Winnipeg, said the work the organization does behind the scenes in bringing in events like that create significant economic impact.
"The 12 national sports and special events in Winnipeg in 2008, like the Tim Hortons Brier and Canadian Country Music Awards, generated about $30 million worth of economic impact for the city," Logan said.
Destination Winnipeg believes its aggressive marketing of the city has a definite payback. In 2008, the organization funded some new research on future potential economic development in the city. Duncan said the purpose was to update the cluster study done in 2002.
Without revealing any specifics, he said the results of the study indicate the city has some sustainable strengths worthy of the additional marketing clout Destination Winnipeg is now going to have at its disposal.
"If this type of study was done five or six years ago, you wouldn't see the types of growth projections that are in there," said Duncan. "These projections are based on solid research and we have great data that we look at every day."
Douglas Porter, the deputy chief economist of BMO Capital Markets, who was in Winnipeg Thursday, said the current strength of the Prairie economy is not a surprise.
He said the drivers of the regional economic growth have not gone away. Although total employment is down a little in Manitoba, it is far more stable than it is in virtually every other province in the country.
He said a quiet recovery of some commodity prices like oil and copper may suggest a turnaround in the global economy may happen sooner than has been anticipated.
Along with the sustained strength of agricultural commodity prices, he said a recovery in other commodities is bound to be beneficial to western Canadian economies.
martin.cash@freepress.ca