Grateful for opportunity, amazed by community

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/05/2025 (227 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This is my last newspaper column. After 36 years as a business writer at the Free Press, I am retiring.

Irrespective of the relative excellence of the work I’ve had published, I’ve had a fantastic run, with supportive colleagues, patient editors and contacts and sources who (usually) returned my calls.

It’s the nature of the beast (which must be fed every day) that writing on deadline can be stressful. But over the years, I worried more about missing a story that readers expected more than I did rebukes from editors.

Over time, I got the hang of the slow, steady growth dynamic of the Manitoba economy and the DIY attitude in this province.

While other places around the country may build taller skyscrapers, bigger Amazon warehouses and sexier software companies, I came to understand, in Manitoba, businesses tend to bide their time until the right opportunity came along.

Sure there’s plenty of misfires (I still can’t believe the world’s only canola protein plant couldn’t make a go of it) but when a large project or enterprise is embarked on, chances are it will be done right — whether it’s an Arctic char hatchery or relaunching Winnipeg’s NHL franchise.

Even though Winnipeggers love to play the role of the plucky underdog, I found the modesty is not performative.

I have often taken to heart the old line local business leader Sandy Riley is usually credited with coining: Winnipeg wouldn’t exist without the collective will of the people.

I have been amazed at that collective will on so many occasions.

One of my favourite examples was the creation of AssentWorks (now North Forge Fabrication Lab), the largest maker-space of its kind in the country. It was something few enterprising individuals thought the community would benefit from without any consideration or profit for themselves.

I’ve often been struck by the quirky nature of the competitive spirit in Winnipeg. When the whole community benefits, I’ve seen uncommon co-operation.

Individual corporate successes became a source of community pride: having the biggest bus company in North America; the largest commercial HVAC equipment company in Canada and the U.S.; the biggest mutual fund company in the country; and one of the largest auto collision-repair chains on the continent all based in Winnipeg.

I’ve been amazed at the vital, successful community enterprises like CentrePort, Assiniboine Park Conservancy, all the Business Improvement Zones, chambers of commerce and Hudson Bay Railway that would not exist if there wasn’t a lot of different players — including government — pitching in without expectation of future financial rewards.

Growing up in suburban Toronto, I had little to no exposure to the realities of Canadian Indigenous peoples before coming to Winnipeg.

Over the years, I have been humbled and inspired by the creative energy and goodwill I’ve encountered from that community, in spite of the cruel barriers it continues to have to overcome.

But I’ve also felt pride in being part of a community that acknowledges past wrongs and sincerely tries to address them.

I think the best example is the all-expenses-paid Indigenous pilot training program operated by Exchange Income Corp., whose airlines (Perimeter Aviation, Calm Air, Keewatin Air and others) fly into many First Nation communities and are often their only transportation option.

I’ve seen the joy in the faces of graduates and enthusiasm of company officials about the pilot program that now has campuses in Thompson and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Yes, it’s good business for those airlines to potentially have Indigenous pilots flying into the communities where they grew up. But the graduates are free to go and work wherever they want and are under no obligation to work for the company that paid for their training.

That’s the kind of economic reconciliation that ought to serve as an example for the whole country.

I’m grateful to have been accorded a ridiculous amount of kindness, respect and professional courtesy from so many people in the Manitoba business community — too many to name here.

I’ve also been honoured and proud to work at one of the last surviving independent daily newspapers in the country.

The Free Press is a local institution and although it may be smaller than when I started in 1989, readers don’t ever have to worry whether they’re getting the truth, delivered to the best of its ability, every day.

It requires relentless hard work to put out a daily newspaper and my colleagues at the Free Press — including management and ownership — have been a source of inspiration. I know the good work being done will continue in my absence and be enhanced by excellent young talent who will carry on the tradition.

As press freedoms around the world diminish, Manitoba is lucky to have — and deserves — the Free Press.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca