Here’s an interesting series of news stories:
Aug. 8/08 — Standard Aero announces a $20 million expansion of its Winnipeg plant, funded by a $20 million loan from the Doer government. The expansion could add up to 300 jobs in Winnipeg.
Aug. 15/08 — In defending his travel budget, Premier Doer indicates that: “…a two-day trade mission to Savannah, Georgia in June is being credited with Standard Aero spending more than $20 million on a plant expansion that could create more than 300 jobs over the next six years in Winnipeg.”
Aug. 21/08 — Standard Aero announces that it’s dumping its Winnipeg-based management team and shifting head office operations to Tempe, Arizona.
Hmm…did they let you know about that down in Georgia, Gary?
Yes, the end result of all this is more overall jobs in Winnipeg, but the loss of another major head office definitely isn’t good news. Last year it was Agricore, this year it’s Standard Aero, and the Canadian Wheat Board appears to be living on borrowed time.
Of course, this trend has been going on for decades, as Winnipeg continues to lose influence among the C-suite crowd, and is simply relegated to branch plant status. Meanwhile, over the past few years Calgary has experienced 60%+ growth in the number of head offices it hosts, and mid-sized U.S. cities like Nashville and Omaha have been praised for their efforts to attract/retain head office operations.
The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce released an interesting proposal a few years ago for a Winnipeg Economic Partnership that would bring together all the relevant players (City, Province, Destination Wpg, Chamber, post-secondary institutions) to work in a coordinated manner to attract new business to the City.
Unfortunately, the plan never went anywhere due to fragile egos and the Mayor’s unflagging support of Destination Winnipeg, despite it’s dismal track record in attracting anything to the City other than the odd heavily-subsidized award show or sports event.
I’m not saying the Chamber is the ideal outfit to lead this type of group either, but their idea has some merit. Alternately, we could continue to do nothing but watch as all the decision-making authority skips town for good.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: City of Winnipeg, province of manitoba, standard aero
Winnipeg could become more competitive by deepening its talent pool. At the time of the 2006 Census, Winnipeg’s population was skewed toward low-productivity work. Those with some form of post-secondary education (39% of the population) were outnumbered by those with high school or less (42%).
Compare this to a few other cities in Canada, where those with at least some post-secondary outnumber those with high school or less:
Calgary: 35% high school or less, 45% some form of post-secondary
Toronto: 36% high school or less, 44% some form of post-secondary
Montreal: 36% high school or less, 45% some form of post-secondary
Fortunately, there are some reforms quietly under way to improve Winnipeg’s and Manitoba’s numbers. But because the most effective way to get young people into post-secondary is to start laying the groundwork before they even start Grade 1, it takes at least 20 years to really start seeing the results.
@KM – Great stats. I agree completely that we need to deepen the talent pool. One thing I liked about the Chamber proposal was that it involved educators. Let’s try to increase overall enrollment in post-secondary institutions, but let’s also do a strategic assessment of where the city’s greatest opportunities lie for future economic development, and support the growth of programs in those areas.
I think this type of approach would yield far greater returns in the long run than simply chasing around after the economic development flavour of the week (call centers! IT! biomed! inland port!) like we usually do.
How about just trying to attract 20 to 50 thousand manufacturing jobs for starters.
But yes PF, there needs to be some vision. Unfortunately , in this City, the 20 year mark seems to be as far as you get. Hardly enough time to do anything right.
People need to connect some dots. Energy crisis, Hydro, University research, battery development, EV development, Wind generation. So much supposed talent, you would figure they could leverage it better. The game has barely started and we are so far behind the best we will do is end up purchasing the technology.