It's Time to Sell Winnipeg

No, I don’t mean selling it off or abandoning it — I mean we need to start acting like we believe in this city and start selling it the way successful businesses sell their products. Because right now, we’re sitting on our hands, waiting for opportunity to knock. And in today’s market, that’s a good way to get left behind.

We’re in a fight for jobs, investment, and people. That fight isn’t just with nearby cities like Regina or Saskatoon. It’s with Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, and every U.S. city offering cheaper land, faster permits, and better deals. The days of businesses coming to us are gone. They’re being courted aggressively by municipalities who understand that you don’t build a strong economy by being passive.

Take a hard look at what Regina is doing.

Their city council is set to vote on a $6.78 million incentive package to convince Costco to stay within city limits. The retail giant had a deal to build a second location in the Westerra neighbourhood but backed out due to development costs. Costco is now eyeing land just outside Regina — likely cheaper and less regulated. Instead of letting that slip away, Regina has stepped up with a proposal that would cover those development costs through a land development reserve. That money would be paid back within eight years through property taxes.

That’s a smart, aggressive move. If Regina lands that second store, it’ll mean 300 new jobs, millions in economic activity, and a steady flow of tax revenue. Plus, Costco will drive traffic and sales to neighbouring businesses. It’s a win.

In Winnipeg? We’d still be arguing about whether it’s “fair” to give a break to a big company. Or we’d get bogged down in zoning fights, consultations, and years of process that send a clear message: development is painful here.

Instead of selling Winnipeg, we’re pushing policies that make it harder to sell. Case in point — the city’s plan to force fourplexes into established single-family neighbourhoods, regardless of what residents want. Marty Gold recently reported in the Winnipeg Sun that this move, tied to securing federal housing dollars, is triggering backlash citywide. People feel ignored. That doesn’t just erode trust — it drives investment away.

We’re not thinking like salespeople. We’re thinking like administrators. That needs to change.

If we want companies to build here, we need to pick up the phone and sell them on it. Offer land at a discount, but lock in long-term property taxes. Create an express lane for development approvals, especially for shovel-ready projects. Sit down with Winnipeg-based companies looking to expand — and give them a reason to do it here instead of heading down Highway 1 to Saskatoon or Calgary.

Tech firms are investing in data centres across North America — let’s pitch them on Winnipeg’s stable climate, low power rates, and central location. But instead of waiting for them to notice, we should be on the road, meeting them, and making them an offer too good to refuse.

Developers are building at record pace in places like Edmonton and Kelowna, often because those cities are faster, more flexible, and more focused on outcomes, not just red tape. Here in Winnipeg, developers regularly cite delays, rezoning confusion, and inconsistent support from City Hall as reasons to take their money elsewhere.

Even our own companies are starting to look outside Manitoba. That should be a wake-up call.

We need to start treating discounts and incentives not as handouts, but as investments. If we knock $2 million off a development fee to secure a $30 million project that generates steady tax revenue and jobs? That’s not a loss. That’s a deal any private-sector executive would make.

Cities are economic engines. But engines only run when they’re fueled with investment and driven by leadership. The private sector understands this. It’s why corporations cut deals every day — to get the deal closed and the revenue flowing.

But in Winnipeg, we talk like we’re stuck in the 1990s, waiting for companies to send a fax expressing interest. We’ve forgotten that growth doesn’t happen by default. It has to be sold.

Let’s flip the script.

Let’s sell Winnipeg.

Let’s make sales calls to Fortune 500 companies. Let’s recruit logistics companies to CentrePort with aggressive land offers. Let’s cut deals with home builders to lock in hundreds of new starts — today — not three years from now. Let’s meet with companies in the U.S. who are tired of high energy prices and sell them on Manitoba Hydro’s competitive rates and

Winnipeg’s central location.

And let’s get serious about being business-friendly.

That doesn’t mean handing out blank cheques. It means doing the work of negotiation, of strategy, and of relationship-building. It means having a clear, consistent message: we want your business, and we’re ready to make a deal.

The alternative? More delays. More frustration. More opportunities lost to faster, bolder, and hungrier cities.

It’s time to change the mindset. No more waiting. No more hoping. It’s time to go out and close the deal.