Chamber touts our strengths

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Manitoba was one of the hardest hit provinces in the 1991 recession, but this time the opposite is true. Winnipeg’s Chamber of Commerce is taking that message to the outside business world. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

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(WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

In so many different ways, Winnipeg and Manitoba present as among the most stable and robust economies in the country these days.

The more the global recession and financial crisis shake out, the more capable and resilient the provincial economy looks.

While the number of bankruptcies starts to spike, over the 12-month period ending the beginning of March there were only 2.3 per cent more personal and commercial bankruptcies in Manitoba than in the previous 12-month period, compared to a 15.8 per cent increase nationally.

Unemployment has increased 0.7 per cent over the last year to 5.1 per cent, a low rate by any standard. (Nationally it was at eight per cent in March and the OECD says it expects global unemployment to reach 10 per cent this year.)

There are some who are inclined to discount the strength of the local economy as just the least worst among a bunch of rotten performers. Others say the Manitoba economy grows so modestly at the best of times that there is not much there to get affected by the global recession.

A recent article in the Globe and Mail by urban guru Richard Florida included a few Top-10 lists of the best places to live in Canada for different demographic groups.

Winnipeg did not appear on any of them.

The fact that Winnipeg does not even land on that type of radar screen might make the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce's campaign, Selling Winnipeg to the World, a hopeless undertaking.

But on the other hand, it may just underline how inspired and timely such an effort really is.

Bill Morrissey, the chamber vice-president leading the charge, is overwhelmed with the buy-in from the existing Winnipeg business community that has already occurred.

The goal is for a team of volunteers to talk to the top executives of the 200 largest companies in the city and ask them all specific things such as what they like about doing business in Winnipeg, what they don't like and, most importantly, who they think might be likely candidates to set up shop here for whatever reason.

In the past, economic development people became convinced that the best way to grow the local economy is from within.

That may still be the case, but the exercise of going out to pose questions to the private-sector players who are on the front line and then following up in a targeted, focused way to potential prospects will, if nothing else, put Winnipeg on radar screens it was not formerly on.

It will also generate data on the perceptions businesspeople have of the marketplace which could be invaluable for public policy makers in the future.

The fact that the process is happening now, when caution and economy is the order of the day for most businesses, further plays into Winnipeg's sweet spot of efficiency, affordability and reliability in cost, labour markets and general resourcefulness.

The fact that Winnipeg is not part of the consciousness of so many -- witness the Richard Florida Top-10 lists -- may just mean greater opportunities for those who act soonest.

"I am convinced that the Winnipeg value proposition is strong," Morrissey said.

Leaving aside any of the specifics that might compel a business to move to Winnipeg, the fundamentals of the economy are amazingly stable which backs out some of the uncertainty that business abhors.

Stability and a slow grow rate may be about the only things that are widely known about the Manitoba economy, along with the fact it is very diversified.

But that was not always the case.

In fact, in the late '80s Manitoba's economy was up and down like an Alberta economy. Jim Hrichishen, director of economic and fiscal analysis for the Department of Finance, recently pointed out that the provincial economy grew by a total of 15 per cent between 1984 and 1985, flattened out to 0.2 per cent in 1986 and then actually shrank by 0.5 per cent in 1988 when the rest of the country grew by five per cent.

Hrichishen noted that Manitoba was one of the hardest hit in the 1991 recession, at least partially because the provincial economy was slumping so badly leading up to that national recession.

This time the opposite is true. The province has had positive momentum going into this recession, growing better than the national average for the last couple of years. It is also much more diversified than it was in the late '80s.

Of course, economic growth has occurred throughout the world over the last two decades, not just in Manitoba.

But since the business masses seem oblivious to the Manitoba story, this could be an excellent time to mobilize the community to spread that news.

That's because clearly, most companies do not have business development teams that are sophisticated enough -- like IKEA's --to drill down and find the diamond in the rough on their own.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 23, 2009 B5