Winnipeg Census: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[Pegger5]

Originally Posted by supai

Hopefully Winnipeg can hang on to its head offices and they don't all end up in Calgary.

Edmonton has a lot more than 3 head offices. A lot of them are private corporations such as PCL. In any event here is a few of the larger ones:

EPCOR,
Canadian Western Bank
Alberta Treasury Branch
PCL
Stantec
Biomira
Matrikon
Peace Hills Trust


One thing I really like about Alberta is the mountains absolutley spectacular scenery especially from the top of a summit!!

You are right Newflyer. I was talking about National/International companies. In Edmonton, that would eliminate, EPCOR CWBank, ACB, Peace Hills,
The only ones are PCL, Stantec and Katz Group (Rexall); those are the three I was thinking of. There is a list of HO's somewhere in this Canadian forum talking about the amount of HO's in each city. Edmonton does not even make the list...
Saying all that, Edmonton is doing very well supplying the Oil & Gas industry and having plump Government employees... For the record, I actually like Edmonton. It is a much closer city to the Peg than Calgary is.
Every city in Canada has something good to offer!

[Pegger5]

Originally Posted by newflyer

I think he meant large publicly traded corporations.

Edmonton is more of an industrail and petro services support city .. not as much a corporate head office location.
Winnipeg has far more than Edmonton... and some major ones are:

Can West Global
Richardson and Sons
Great West Life
New Flyer Industries
Domo Gas
MTS / AllStream
Wellington West Capital
Wawanesa Insurance
North West Company
Artic Equipment Co-op
Investors Group (largest mutual fund company in Canada)
Buhler Industries
Mondetta Sports Wear
Motor Coach indutries
Agricore United
Standard Aero
Rogers western head office
Rice Financial
Canad Inns
Cargil
Monsanto Canada
Bison Transport
Nygard International
Kitchen Craft
Palliser Furniture
Riemer Express
Ben Moss Jewelers
Hudson Bay Mining Company
Ridley Inc.
Paterson Grain
Cangene Inc.
Arctic Glacier
FP Publications Inc.
Poineer Grain
Winnipeg Commodity Exchange
Man-Shield
Ceridian Canada
Creswin Inc.
MB Hydro
Ipos Reid
K-Tel
Golden West Media

... ect ect .. I am know I missed a bunch.

.. but as you can tell Winnipeg is miles ahead of Edmonton in head offices. These are not fly-by-night operations either, they have been established in Winnipeg for decades for the most part... I really doubt Calgary would have much to offer .. except jacked up office rates and no staff. As you can tell Winnipeg has a strong core of agriculture and transport companies with a good amount of media and bioscience. Calgary has very little in any of these fields. Infact I wouldn't be suprised in Agruim relocated to Winnipeg in the next few years. It is the centre of agriculture in Canada.

How could you forget Old Dutch Chips! Born and raised in Winnipeg. Huge plant and HO in Inkster Park.. They also have plants in Calgary and Minneapolis..

Also, Bee-Maid Honey and a ton of clothing manufacturers that make original clothing and many that make clothing for all the big jean names like GAP, Levis etc.

[SmileyBoy]

How much is that new infrastructure overhaul going to be?? Did I hear something like $2.4 billion??

Seems like that's enough to rebuild almost every single major artery in the city.

[Only The Lonely..]

Originally Posted by SmileyBoy

How much is that new infrastructure overhaul going to be?? Did I hear something like $2.4 billion??

Seems like that's enough to rebuild almost every single major artery in the city.

Ahh, that's just a drop in the bucket..

We're a big old city with lots of problems.

[Boreal]

Great points drew, and I agree 110% ...I know that in our climate, roads cannot exist at 90% to 100% ...however, roads like Inkster Blvd, Route 90 between Ness and Notre Dame, Oak Point Highway (the parts not yet replaced) are beyond disgraceful. That is where I have issues ...and just the relative sad state of things ...like the bottleneck on Route 90 just south of Academy ...I assume the new street lights put in, set well back from the street, and the many dead trees and broken curbs that are seeing no attention means we will soon be saying a 3 lane Route 90 up to the bridge (which will still inevitably cause bottlenecks unless the massive amount of money is put up to add on to the bridge which is exceptionally unlikely in my opinion).

But yes, I understand the political element to it. And that does likely have a LOT to do with what is being done. Nonetheless, I still support the road repair right now.

[vid]

Old Dutch Chips started in Minnesota, expanded to Manitoba and Northwest Ontario in the 50s. The company is almost 80 years old.

The do make a wonderful chip though. And if I'm not mistaken, they have relocated most of their offices to Calgary.

[newflyer]

Originally Posted by Pegger5

How could you forget Old Dutch Chips! Born and raised in Winnipeg. Huge plant and HO in Inkster Park.. They also have plants in Calgary and Minneapolis..

Also, Bee-Maid Honey and a ton of clothing manufacturers that make original clothing and many that make clothing for all the big jean names like GAP, Levis etc.

Yes you are so right.... I forgot about Old Dutch. I am pretty sure there head office is still on Inkster.

others would be:

Warehouse One
Nutty Club
Western Glove
Clean Bee
Lakeside Hospitality
Salsbury House
Western Canada Lotteries
APTN

As far as Calgary goes... more and more non-oil companies are looking to move out of town, as local office and industrial space is extremely expensive and staffing has become a major concern to many.

For the record I am also a big Edmoton fan. It is a beautiful city. I have spend many evenings dining at the Sawmill, which is a very sucessful local restaurant chain. It also has one of my favorite drives, cruising down old groat road always makes me smile. There is no ill-will... each city is a separate entity and have individual characteristics which makes them special.

I would say I am a fan of all of Western Canadian cities, but am also extremely aware that each is different. No city has every characteristic .. and sometimes that is mistaken for weakness or criticism. I like to see that as the distinct charm which diffrentiates each. Who want every city to me the same .. not me.