Business in Winnipeg

[esquire]

Originally Posted by cheswick

That's a bit inaccurate. Bayer bought Monsato in June and is closing the Winnipeg legacy office and keeping the Bayer head office in Calgary. Not so much moving. Either way same result, loss of jobs in Winnipeg.

Not my words, the Free Press'

Monsanto head office relocating to Calgary

Winnipeg is losing a major head office after Bayer Canada informed employees last week it’s moving the former Monsanto headquarters to Calgary.

That's kind of how it goes here. We never seem to gain head offices from elsewhere... it's a bit of a one way street.

[bomberjet]

Well we did recently gain the Bell western Canada head office lol that was a joke..

[DowntownBooster]

Originally Posted by esquire

Not my words, the Free Press'

Monsanto head office relocating to Calgary



That's kind of how it goes here. We never seem to gain head offices from elsewhere... it's a bit of a one way street.

Just makes me sick when these things happen. It's this kind of crap that should get citizens here upset instead of the possibility of opening P&M because it may delay their drive home by a minute or two. We're losing some good paying jobs to a place that doesn't need it. Shame on Bayer for doing this to us.

[drew]

^ according the article Winnipeg was out incentivized by Calgary.

Sucks, but what are you going to do. We have been bleeding head offices to Calgary for decades now.

[Tacheguy]

not too fussed about this. better to put resources into local starts and grow our own small businesses in my view. we have great foundational companies in this city already. I don't think organizations that chase locational bids are worth it in the long run, unless they are a very strategic piece of an emerging cluster or something like that.

[DowntownBooster]

Originally Posted by drew

^ according the article Winnipeg was out incentivized by Calgary.

Sucks, but what are you going to do. We have been bleeding head offices to Calgary for decades now.

That's what's so annoying. It seems as though people here get upset about the stupidest things (potholes, keeping P&M closed, etc). They don’t realize that we as a city are in competition with other cities for attracting business which brings in external dollars. We are continually losing head office jobs but everyone seems content to just get more government jobs created which is just Peter robbing Paul. There’s too much small town thinking in Winnipeg.

[Wolf13]

Originally Posted by DowntownBooster

That's what's so annoying. It seems as though people here get upset about the stupidest things (potholes, keeping P&M closed, etc). They don’t realize that we as a city are in competition with other cities for attracting business which brings in external dollars. We are continually losing head office jobs but everyone seems content to just get more government jobs created which is just Peter robbing Paul. There’s too much small town thinking in Winnipeg.

THIIIIIIIIIS.

And then wondering why their taxes are so high. And the others then claiming the former shouldn't complain about paying their fair share, etc.

[windypeg]

Originally Posted by DowntownBooster

That's what's so annoying. It seems as though people here get upset about the stupidest things (potholes, keeping P&M closed, etc). They don’t realize that we as a city are in competition with other cities for attracting business which brings in external dollars. We are continually losing head office jobs but everyone seems content to just get more government jobs created which is just Peter robbing Paul. There’s too much small town thinking in Winnipeg.

YES, not to mention the shocking number of Winnipeggers who seem to be just flat-out anti-development, who believe developers are evil greedy monsters who ruin their communities. And then turn around and complain about their taxes. So we don't want to pay higher taxes but we also don't want any of those evil developers coming in and building new developments that would add to the tax base ......

[buzzg]

There were not too many jobs left at that Monsanto office here from what I hear. All of the internal marketing departments and major agency contracts were consolidated and shifted to Toronto years ago. There were a few local ad agencies that ended up shutting down right after that happened.

“Monsanto” itself isn’t a giant operation at its HQ as people think – it has dozens of sub-brands and child companies (Dekalb, BioAg, etc) that all essentially operate independently, and have offices all over.

[Boreal]

Originally Posted by drew

^ according the article Winnipeg was out incentivized by Calgary.

Sucks, but what are you going to do. We have been bleeding head offices to Calgary for decades now.

You never want to get into the game of trying to offer more incentives. It's a losing mentality. If we couldn't glad-hand well enough, so be it. I agree with an earlier comment. A strong business community is homegrown, not created by giving everything away. Good for Calgary, but we'll be just fine. It's not that this is a great situation, but it's not disastrous.

[ProudofWinnipeg]

Not to challenge questions of incentives, but why wouldn't a multinational locate in Calgary rather than Winnipeg? Apart from the oil, in a human capital economy the University of Alberta is rated much more highly than the U of M, and even the University of Calgary is better rated. Calgary has a higher percentage of the population with post-seconary degrees than Winnipeg, and a higher percentage of people with STEM degrees.

Why should a pharma company keep an office here, when Winnipeg offers a smaller population of the people they need, and chances are, the average U of M grad isn't as competent as the average U of A or UCalgary grad? Maybe we need to improve our school system and universities a whole lot, before we can ask for head-offices to take us seriously?

[DowntownBooster]

Originally Posted by ProudofWinnipeg

Why should a pharma company keep an office here, when Winnipeg offers a smaller population of the people they need, and chances are, the average U of M grad isn't as competent as the average U of A or UCalgary grad? Maybe we need to improve our school system and universities a whole lot, before we can ask for head-offices to take us seriously?

With that line of thinking, everything in Canada should be located in Toronto and everything in the U.S. should be located in New York. You do realize that Winnipeg was once larger than Calgary, therefore, whatever was there should have come here instead.

[DowntownBooster]

Originally Posted by Tacheguy

not too fussed about this. better to put resources into local starts and grow our own small businesses in my view. we have great foundational companies in this city already. I don't think organizations that chase locational bids are worth it in the long run, unless they are a very strategic piece of an emerging cluster or something like that.

In theory that sounds noble but a city made up of only small business can't compete with those that have national and international companies. It's good to have small business as part of the mix but it's the large companies that bring external dollars into their communities. Part of that is used to benefit those communities through philanthropic causes, sponsoring local events, buying the naming rights to facilities (such as stadiums and arenas), etc. Small businesses often struggle just to get by with limited capital. It's also much harder to attract and retain employees in small firms due to limited opportunities which is one of the reasons we lose people to Toronto and Calgary.

[dennis]

The small businesses here wil just be bought by larger businesses elsewhere and eventually move.

[Tacheguy]

Originally Posted by DowntownBooster

In theory that sounds noble but a city made up of only small business can't compete with those that have national and international companies. It's good to have small business as part of the mix but it's the large companies that bring external dollars into their communities. Part of that is used to benefit those communities through philanthropic causes, sponsoring local events, buying the naming rights to facilities (such as stadiums and arenas), etc. Small businesses often struggle just to get by with limited capital. It's also much harder to attract and retain employees in small firms due to limited opportunities which is one of the reasons we lose people to Toronto and Calgary.

I am not opposed to having large companies in Winnipeg. Quite the contrary. The question is how do you achieve that. do you chase them with public money or do you try to help grow small firms already here.We have lots of great larger companies here that started small. That is where the scarce public development funds should go in my opinion.

[Ando]

Growing them here is the ideal situation. And there are successes.

[cheswick]

Newflyer moving 90 jobs to US


https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bus-ma...ules-1.4174602

[buzzg]

Shitty, but not really through fault of their own. Even more reason for the city to pull it's uninnovative head out of its ass and work closely with NFI on new tech and making Winnipeg a bus hub.

[Riverman]

New Flyer has always completed buses in Crookston, where the drive trains are installed.

It common nowdays to expand into the US south as they are mostly right-to-work states.

[esquire]

I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but CanadInns is projecting a giant CanadInns logo at night on the side of the downtown Radisson... looks pretty tacky if you ask me.

If they want it to be a CanadInns so badly, then why not just change it over from Radisson??