CentrePort Canada is a tri-modal

dry port A dry port (sometimes referred to as an inland port) is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport, operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations. In addition to their role in ...

and Foreign Trade Zone located partly in northwest

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

(CentrePort South) and partly in the

Rural Municipality of Rosser Rosser is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba, lying adjacent to the northwest side of Winnipeg and part of the Winnipeg Metro Region. Its population as of the 2016 Census was 1,372. It is situated along Provincial Tr ...

(CentrePort North), and situated adjacent to the

Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (commonly known as Winnipeg International Airport or Winnipeg Airport) is a Transport Canada designated international airport located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the seventh b ...

(YWG). With of industrial land, it is the largest tri-modal

inland port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...

and

foreign trade zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to cust ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

.https://www.centreportcanada.ca/uploads/document/translogistics_web.t1556910421.pdf The port provides access to tri-modal transportation: (1) rail—three

Class I railway In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

s, specifically

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

(CNR),

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

(CPR), and

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

; (2) air—a 24/7 international

air cargo Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail. Aircraft types Different cargo can be transported by passenger, cargo or combi aircraft: * Passenger aircraft use the ...

airport; and (3) road—an international trucking hub. CentrePort also offers

greenfield investment In many disciplines, a greenfield project is one that lacks constraints imposed by prior work. The analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to work within the constraints of existing buildings or infrastructure ...

opportunities for a wide variety of business operations, including distribution, warehousing, and manufacturing. The portion of the inland port that falls within Rosser has access to a Special Planning Area to streamline the land development approval process. CentrePort Canada Way is a

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

that links Winnipeg's Inkster Boulevard to the Perimeter Highway, and allows for 5 minutes to . Located near the geographic centre of

, it serves as a hub for national and international trading corridors, as well as attracting new transportation logistics development to the city area. Moreover, Winnipeg has direct connections to both of Canada's only major Pacific ports,

Port of Vancouver The Port of Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the fourth largest in North America by tonnes of cargo, facilitating trade between Canada and more than 170 world economies. The port is managed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, whic ...

and the

Port of Prince Rupert The Port of Prince Rupert is a seaport managed by the Prince Rupert Port Authority that occupies of land and water along of waterfront. The port is located in Prince Rupert Harbour in the North Coast Regional District of British Columbia. The ...

, as well as a direct connection to

Churchill, Manitoba Churchill is a town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname ...

, a major grain export facility and the only Canadian deep-water Arctic port.

Governance

CentrePort Canada was created in 2008 by provincial legislation called the ''CentrePort Canada Act'', which established its mandate and designated land to the port. The Act also defines the structure of the board of directors and includes nominees from 11 nominating organizations and 4 directors at large. Since then, CentrePort has worked closely with related departments of the Manitoba government, including

Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure () is the provincial government department responsible for managing infrastructure in Manitoba. It is in charge of "the development of transportation policy and legislation, and fthe management of the p ...

, Department of Economic Development and Jobs, Manitoba Municipal Relations, and Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development. Under ''The Planning Act'', the portion of the inland port that falls within Rosser is a Special Planning Area, wherein land usage is guided by the ''Inland Port Special Planning Areas Regulation 49/2016'' (Development Plan and Zoning By-law). The planning authority for lands within this area is the provincial Minister of Indigenous and Municipal Relations. CentrePort has also engaged with several federal departments, including Western Economic Diversification,

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportati ...

Global Affairs International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

, and

International Development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic or human development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classifications ...

. CentrePort is now one among a growing number of inland terminals in North America and faces competition from other prairie centres, such as

Port Alberta Port Alberta is a joint venture betweeEdmonton Globaland Edmonton International Airport (EIA) based in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region in Alberta, Canada. Port Alberta provides transportation, logistics and supply chain solutions to connect Albe ...

in Metro Edmonton and the Global Transportation Hub in

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 C ...

. Marketing partners of CentrePort include (among others): * Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce * Assiniboia Chamber of Commerce * Bockstael Construction * Business Council of Manitoba *

Business Development Bank of Canada The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC; french: Banque de développement du Canada) is a Crown corporation and national development bank wholly owned by the Government of Canada, mandated to help create and develop Canadian businesses thro ...

(BDC) * Cushman & Wakefield I Stevenson * Economic Development Winnipeg * Manitoba Chambers of Commerce * Manitoba Real Estate Association * Manitoba Trucking Association *

Motel 6 Motel 6 is a privately owned hospitality company with a chain of budget motels in the United States and Canada. Motel 6 also operates Studio 6, a chain of extended-stay hotels. The hotel brand is owned by The Blackstone Group's real estate busi ...

Winnipeg West * Prairie Rail Solutions * Super 8 Winnipeg West * Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP *

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

Winnipeg * Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce *

Winnipeg Metro Region The Winnipeg Metropolitan Region (formerly called the Winnipeg Capital Region and the Manitoba Capital Region) is a metropolitan area in the Canada, Canadian Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Manitoba located in the Red River Valley ...

* World Trade Centre Winnipeg

Operations

CentrePort Canada provides access to tri-modal transportation: # three

s, specifically

(CNR),

(CPR), and

; # a 24/7 international

airport ( James Armstrong Richardson International); and # an international trucking hub, which includes two of Canada’s largest companies— Bison Transport and TransX. CentrePort also offers

opportunities for a wide variety of business operations, including distribution, warehousing, and manufacturing. CentrePort also has partnerships with post-secondary institutions, namely

Red River College Red River College Polytechnic (RRC Polytech) is a List of colleges in Canada, college located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the province's largest institute of applied learning and applied research, with over 200 degree, diploma, and cer ...

(RRC) and Manitoba Institute of Trades & Technology. For

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

, there are specialized industry training programs at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gr ...

( Richardson College for Environment and Science), and RRC (

Paterson GlobalFoods Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF) is a family-owned international agri-food business. It was established in 1908 as the N. M. Paterson Company. In 1912, N. M. Paterson built its first elevator at Fort William, with a handling capacity of 75,000 bushels. ...

Institute). The portion of CentrePort Canada within the

has been established as the "Inland Port Special Planning Area," wherein land use is regulated by the Development Plan and Zoning By-law, helping to expedite planning and the land-development approval process. In 2020, CentrePort Canada announced a new project to be completed by the end of 2021: InkSport Business Park, a $65-million, 68-acre industrial park built by Whiteland Developers.

Location

Located near the geographic centre of

, Winnipeg—therefore CentrePort—serves as a hub for national and international trading corridors, as well as attracting new transportation logistics development to the city area. Winnipeg has connections to both of Canada's only major Pacific ports,

and the

, in addition to a direct connection to

, a major grain export facility and the only Canadian deep-water Arctic port. CentrePort Canada is therefore located at the hub of key economic gateways.

Companies and industry sectors

CentrePort's is principal for any degree of development and is particularly beneficial for six key

industry sector Industry classification or industry taxonomy is a type of economic taxonomy that classifies companies, organizations and traders into industrial groupings based on similar production processes, similar products, or similar behavior in financial m ...

s: *

Agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

* Advanced & composites manufacturing *

Biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

E-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

Energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

& mines *

Transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

Since its inception, 100 new companies have chosen to locate at the inland port and CentrePort has 2000 acres in active development. CentrePort is home to various

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

and

heavy equipment Heavy equipment or heavy machinery refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. ''Heavy equipment'' usually comprises five e ...

manufacturers & suppliers including, ISCO Industries, SMS Equipment, and Cassidy Manufacturing. Regarding the transportation and logistics sector, CentrePort is home to two of Canada’s largest companies, Bison Transport and TransX; houses operations for Gardewine, Payne Transport, Paul’s Hauling, Meyers Bros Trucking, 4Tracks Ltd., etc.; and houses new facilities by

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

, Freight Canada, Pacific Coast Express, and

Rosedale Transport Rosedale may refer to: Places Australia *Rosedale, New South Wales, a settlement *Rosedale, Queensland, a town *Rosedale, South Australia, a town * Rosedale, Victoria, a town *Shire of Rosedale, Victoria, a former local government area Canada * R ...

. New company facilities at CentrePort include: * a

pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

and

canola Close-up of canola blooms Canola flower Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, i ...

protein processing plant (94,000 sqft) of Merit Functional Foods; * a distribution centre (100,000 sqft) of Groupe Touchette, which is the largest Canadian-owned tire distribution company; * a $1.45 million plant of Eautopia Biological Technology that produces custom bottles, labels, and beverages; * 140,000 sqft facility expansion to Rosenau Transport, which is one of

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

's largest regional carriers; * $8-million agricultural hub of

Imperial Seed Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, T ...

Winnipeg Airports Authority Campus

The

freight terminal A freight terminal is a processing node for freight. They may include airports, seaports, container ports, goods stations, railroad terminals and trucking terminals. As most freight terminals are located at ports, many cargo containers can be seen ...

(

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

: YWG,

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

: CYWG) is part of the CentrePort Canada

, offering 24/7 worldwide

operations. YWG is ranked #1 in all of Canada for "dedicated freighter aircraft movements." Major carriers on site include Air Canada Cargo,

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

Cargojet Cargojet Inc. () is a scheduled cargo airline based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It operates cargo services in Canada and internationally, as well as full aircraft charters. Its main base is John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. Car ...

, Purolator, and

UPS UPS or ups may refer to: Companies and organizations * United Parcel Service, an American shipping company ** The UPS Store, UPS subsidiary ** UPS Airlines, UPS subsidiary * Underground Press Syndicate, later ''Alternative Press Syndicate'' or ...

. Moreover, Manitoba holds the 3rd largest

aerospace industry Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astr ...

in Canada, including

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and ...

, which is located at CentrePort, on the Winnipeg Airports Authority Campus.

CentrePort Canada Way

CentrePort Canada Way is a four-lane,

that links Winnipeg's Inkster Boulevard to the Perimeter Highway, and allows for 5 minutes to . As

is located near the geographic centre of

, it serves as a hub for national and international trading corridors, as well as attracting new transportation logistics development to the city area. Plans to build CentrePort Canada Way was announced on 14 April 2009, when Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

with Manitoba Premier

Gary Doer Gary Albert Doer (born 31 March 1948) is a former Canadian politician and diplomat from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He served as Canada's ambassador to the United States from 19 October 2009, to 3 March 2016. Doer previously served as the 20th p ...

declared at James Richardson Airport that both the

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

and

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

governments would contribute

CA$ The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style g ...

212.5 million towards a divided four-lane expressway. In March 2014, the Province of Manitoba announced that it would double CentrePort Canada Way to bypass the

Rural Municipality of Headingley Headingley (sometimes spelled Headingly) is a rural municipality in Manitoba, Canada. It is located directly west of Winnipeg and had a population of 3,579 people as of the 2016 census. The Trans-Canada Highway and the Assiniboine River run thro ...

and connect directly into the

TransCanada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

( PTH 1). The expressway subsequently opened in November 2013. The expressway is also situated within about $1 billion in supporting highway infrastructure.

CentrePort Canada Rail Park

Winnipeg is the only major Canadian city on the

prairies Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

served by three continental

class I railway In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

(CNR),

(CPR), and

. A new

industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

named CentrePort Canada Rail Park is in development on of CentrePort's of land, located west of the

Winnipeg Airport Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (commonly known as Winnipeg International Airport or Winnipeg Airport) is a Transport Canada designated international airport located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the seventh b ...

. The Rail Park is currently in development () and, when complete, will provide rail serviced industrial land for companies engaged in global supply chain activities. The Rail Park is intended to further enhance access to the three Class I rail carriers that are already provided by CentrePort, with CPR and CNR in particular operating significant intermodal yards in Winnipeg.

References

External links

CentrePort Canada websiteCentrePort Land Use map
{{Economy of Canada footer Ports and harbours of Manitoba Dry ports of Canada 2008 establishments in Manitoba