Winnipeg, port city. It’s an unlikely label for a Prairie city far removed from any ocean. But Diane Gray’s vision, as CEO of CentrePort Canada Inc., is to build Canada’s first inland port on 8,000 hectares of land, with inter-modal air, highway and rail connections, and a free-trade zone – all at Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. Ms. Gray is a former provincial deputy minister of finance who was part of the negotiations that created CentrePort. Now her job is to put those plans into action.
How can you thrive as an inland port when Winnipeg is so isolated?
I don’t think that’s a fair comment. If you look at how trade flows on rail, almost everything that Canadian National moves east-west or north-south goes through Winnipeg. If you look at the role the Winnipeg Airport Authority plays, it has the most dedicated cargo freighter flights of any airport in the country. That’s because of our central location. [The airport] plays the role in Canada that Memphis plays in the U.S.
Seven per cent of provincial GDP comes from transportation and warehousing, which is more than in any other province. Because we are relatively small [in population], our companies need to export – to other parts of Canada or internationally.
Is there a model for this?
The short answer is no. We did look at inland ports in the U.S. and Mexico, and we drew important lessons – including the importance of rail. We are capitalizing on the fact that CentrePort has on-site access to three class-one rail carriers – CN, CP and BNSF [Burlington Northern Santa Fe].
Whereas most inland ports focus on being inbound distribution centres, our model is much more about export activity. We’ve refined our business case to look at opportunities for manufacturing and distribution. We’re looking at regional distribution, taking advantage of our location between Northwestern Ontario and Saskatchewan. We’re at the geographic centre of that region.
But isn’t the population sparse?
But as Saskatchewan grows, and the population of Manitoba grows, and as you see the activity around Thunder Bay, there is actually a lot of economic activity. And look at the changing practices of retail chains – fresh food requires regional, not national, distribution. We are also working closely with Omnitrax, the owner of the port of Churchill, on opportunities to be more of a staging area for equipment going into Northern Canada.
We are working with the railways on backhaul opportunities – filling the empty containers as they go to Mexico or Asia, putting high-value commodities into them. We don’t expect the goods coming in here are going to be absorbed within our province.
But how can you boost manufacturing in a high-wage, high-dollar zone like Winnipeg?
Manufacturing in Manitoba has held up very well. We have the largest aerospace industry in Western Canada; the largest bus manufacturing in North America. We have a very big agricultural equipment manufacturing sector, and all of that is designed for export.
Our companies have been able to refine themselves, taking advantage of lean manufacturing. They are also globally savvy. When you look at a location to source your [production] inputs, you want to be where it is as easy to get your inputs from Asia as from Europe. Being in the centre means you can do that here in a more seamless way.
And while inputs can be manufactured more cheaply in Asia, you still need assembly within this continent. Products like tractors or Caterpillar equipment are not coming into Canada or the U.S. manufactured in their entirety. They come in as inputs or component parts. There is always going to be some kind of assembly in North America.
Where does China fit in?
