Amazon Seeking 2nd Headquarters: Canadian Cities Pitch Interest

[WhipperSnapper]

We also don't know how long Amazon has been pitching this to "friends and family" before going public.

[le calmar]

Seen in the Ottawa news this morning: "Ottawa is larger than Seattle". I get that the average people is not always aware of the CMA/metropolitan area concept, but a journalist?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Seen in the Ottawa news this morning: "Ottawa is larger than Seattle". I get that the average people is not always aware of the CMA/metropolitan area concept, but a journalist?

In the case of Ottawa's local media, one makes allowances ....

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by balletomane

Winnipeg and Manitoba are launching a joint bid in hopes of attracting Amazon,

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...ipeg-1.4282681

Although I know the chance of Amazon selecting Winnipeg is ~0.1%, at least the city is making an effort. I believe Halifax has expressed interest as well and I'd think Winnipeg's chances would be slightly greater than those of Halifax.

There's exactly a 0% chance. The very first criteria of being a metro area of 1 MM people is already isn't met and having a provincial population of over a million spread over such a desolate area is meaningless. Small airport with no global reach and barely any North American reach, plus attracting talent to the city in that kind of volume will never happen. Who cares if it's cheap. It's cheap for a reason. Saying that "at least they're trying" sometimes encourages stupidity and poor decisions. Politicians' efforts in Winnipeg and Manitoba would be better directed at something else. It's frankly a bit embarrassing for Winnipeg to consider bidding.

[WhipperSnapper]

What's the point? Amazon likely approached communities they were interested in to submit bids a year ago. Any city submitting now would have gives billions in corporate welfare to get a few minutes of consideration before finding the bottom of the recycle bin.

[le calmar]

Agreed that the Winnipeg bid (as well as the Halifax bid) is pointless, it makes the city look desperate. As someone pointed out recently on these boards, when being "centrally located" becomes one of your selling points you know something is wrong. (La Tuque is ideally located halfway between Trois-Rivieres and Saguenay...) Winnipeg may be in the center of North America, but it is also surrounded by thousands of km of nothing.

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by ACT7

It's frankly a bit embarrassing for Winnipeg to consider bidding.

I completely agree, and have said as much in the Winnipeg forum.

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Agreed that the Winnipeg bid (as well as the Halifax bid) is pointless, it makes the city look desperate.

To be fair, it's actually the province driving this initiative.

[SkahHigh]

The Winnipeg thing is clearly a political move to say "Hey, at least we're trying"

[Drybrain]

The willingness of Canadian city governments to jump on this is just ridiculous.

Vancouver, as has been said, is probably too close to the existing headquarters, and isn't that big anyway.

Calgary is a geographically isolated mid-sized centre with a weak tech ecosystem, pitching a vacancy-riddled downtown as a strength. It's not going to happen, regardless of Nenshi's aggressive boosterism. Ottawa? A bit stronger, but barely. And probably too small: even cities in the 1 to 2 million range would be overwhelmed by Amazon. Ottawa has a labour force of 790,000 people, meaning that about 1 in every 15 or 16 working people in Ottawa would be employed by Amazon should the company locate there.

Winnipeg is more ridiculous still. Halifax is probably marginally less ridiculous than Winnipeg, actually (better location, near to new England and U.S. east coast) but the sheer smallness of it precludes it from being in the running. It has a 250,000-person labour force, meaning you'd have a situation where 1 in 6 working Haligonians is employed by Amazon. It would turn the city into a company town. It's absurd. It won't happen.

Toronto and Montreal are the only contenders, and they're probably longshots too. Any other city that wastes money and resources putting together a pitch to Amazon should be embarrassed.

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

The Winnipeg thing is clearly a political move to say "Hey, at least we're trying"

Yah but that's like me applying to be CEO of Microsoft and say "at least I'm trying". I would hope that I would have a friend or family member tell me how ridiculous that is.

Agreed that it's a political move, but I can't imagine any Winnipegger thinking that this makes sense or that this is a good use of any political resource.

[patm]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

The willingness of Canadian city governments to jump on this is just ridiculous.

Vancouver, as has been said, is probably too close to the existing headquarters, and isn't that big anyway.

Calgary is a geographically isolated mid-sized centre with a weak tech ecosystem, pitching a vacancy-riddled downtown as a strength. It's not going to happen, regardless of Nenshi's aggressive boosterism. Ottawa? A bit stronger, but barely. And probably too small: even cities in the 1 to 2 million range would be overwhelmed by Amazon. Ottawa has a labour force of 790,000 people, meaning that about 1 in every 15 or 16 working people in Ottawa would be employed by Amazon should the company locate there.

Winnipeg is more ridiculous still. Halifax is probably marginally less ridiculous than Winnipeg, actually (better location, near to new England and U.S. east coast) but the sheer smallness of it precludes it from being in the running. It has a 250,000-person labour force, meaning you'd have a situation where 1 in 6 working Haligonians is employed by Amazon. It would turn the city into a company town. It's absurd. It won't happen.

Toronto and Montreal are the only contenders, and they're probably longshots too. Any other city that wastes money and resources putting together a pitch to Amazon should be embarrassed.

Calgary council is basically taking the stance that they agree it's a long shot but this is good practice for what they'll be having to do a lot of in the coming years in an effort to diversify.

Why would they be embarrassed? What a short sighted, stupid way of looking at the world.

[Black Star]

Kendall Beleshko (a Vancouver entrepreneur) has outlined the reasons he thinks Edmonton has a legit shot at the Amazon HQ2 bid
https://www.facebook.com/kendall.bel...54939023881847

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by patm

Why would they be embarrassed?

Because it's a foredoomed effort that will cost a great deal of municipal money that could be better spent on almost anything else?

[patm]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Because it's a foredoomed effort that will cost a great deal of municipal money that could be better spent on almost anything else?

I think you're exaggerating how much this will cost relative to other, more useless expenses that you never hear about.

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by patm

I think you're exaggerating how much this will cost relative to other, more useless expenses that you never hear about.

Good leaders know how and where to allocate resources, and any politician in Winnipeg or Manitoba who thinks this is a good idea, needs to give their head a shake. Spending money for "practice" in case this comes up again in the future is indicative of bad leadership. And yes, politicians spend on all kinds of frivolous things that are a waste of money but this just makes no sense. The embarrassing part comes from the fact that they seem to be oblivious.

I'm not even commenting on Calgary's bid. At least it tics off one box - being a metro area of 1 million plus. So even though I think Calgary is a long shot, it's not what I would qualify as embarrassing.

[patm]

Originally Posted by ACT7

Good leaders know how and where to allocate resources, and any politician in Winnipeg or Manitoba who thinks this is a good idea, needs to give their head a shake. Spending money for "practice" in case this comes up again in the future is indicative of bad leadership. And yes, politicians spend on all kinds of frivolous things that are a waste of money but this just makes no sense. The embarrassing part comes from the fact that they seem to be oblivious.

I'm not even commenting on Calgary's bid. At least it tics off one box - being a metro area of 1 million plus. So even though I think Calgary is a long shot, it's not what I would qualify as embarrassing.

Well yeah I can agree with the idea of Winnipeg or Halifax investing large amounts of time and money into this when they literally don't qualify at all. I was more so commenting on Ottawa and Calgary.

[osmo]

Winnipeg is a example that I warned from the start. Cities with 0% chance throwing resources to try and make a pitch. Suits and consultants will get big money thrown at them to make a package and PowerPoint that makes it look like Winnipeg is the next Dubai.

Instead of Winnipeg using those resources to lure any sort of tech that would be a boost to the region they are attempting to swim with sharks where behemoths like Boston or Toronto will eat it alive. Bare minimum criteria it didn't meet and it will simply send it's costyl package that will cost 100k at least, into the trash can.

Interesting fact: Toronto's municipal government is larger than all of Manitoba's Provincial Government and and it is by a large margin as well, that scale and scope is difference is night a d day.

This isn't a knock at Winnipeg though as they are strong for a small package. If Winnipeg was using it's strengths it would attempt to swoop up Amazon warehouse and logistics or pitch to house data centres - that is really thinking outside the box. Show Amazon you can be the best support centre to a Canadian, or even a American bid if it was to be placed in Chicago or any place I'm the general vicinity. Winnipeg has an advantage of being in the centre of it all logistically and can pump out products all over quickly.

Gotta be smart not dumb. I don't expect Halifax to throw in a a bid for example. Halifax will continue to lure tech with a sell on cheap living, urban life, and quick connections to Toronto, Waterloo, Boston and NYC. Something tells me Waterloo won't put in a bid either and will likely just back Toronto's bid and then feast of the spoils of having all that tech activity in there backyard.

[Vixx]

The Winnipeg bid is an example of just wanting to be a part of the hype just for the sake of doing so. It is embarrassing that Winnipeg thinks it has even the most remote chance of competing with large American cities, let alone some other Canadian cities. At least the six largest CMA's here all tick off the minimum 1 million+ people requirement.

As was said, why doesn't a city like Winnipeg try to get an Amazon distribution centre, data collection centre or a logistics facility? These would bring in well paying jobs and help from the ground up facilitate some sort of tech ecosystem.

It's already a stretch saying Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa will be competitive candidate cities, but at least there's merit to them bidding. Cities like Winnipeg going for it is being shortsighted.

[big W]

Reality is the Toronto is the only place in Canada that has a shot. The rest besides Montreal and Vancouver too small. Vancouver is too close to Seattle and I think Toronto is a stronger candidate than Montreal due to it being closer to US centres, larger airport and English speaking which is something that a primarily US company will prefer (American workers and consumers). Now the only chance Toronto has is if Amazon finds they need a corporate head office in Seattle and an International head office. In that case Toronto works due to the diversity in the city and ability to get people from all languages, great airport, and its a huge diverse city in a country that has significantly less immigration hassles (Canada vs US). If immigration does not factor at all then its going to an eastern City in the US.