MB Economic Fundamentals 2008-12

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What`s Behind the Curtain?
Manitoba
2008-12
Daily Online Edition


MB Economic Fundamentals 2008-12



The following codes will be at the top of each post using an eight sequence alphanumeric description of the month, year and area:

MMYYAREA

="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%">Examples

1208MTBA for Dec 08 Manitoba

1208WNPG for Dec 08 Winnipeg

1208PORT for Dec 08 Portage La Prairie

If you wish to view only one area, you can use the advanced search mode and select the "Result Type" > "Show results as posts".

I have also color coded each area along with the caption to make it easier for you to simply scroll through the posts and locate the ones you are interested in.

All the small towns that have online newspapers are covered on Sundays.

 

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1208PORT
Mayor headed to Ukraine

The Ukrainian population is set to grow in Portage la Prairie as a handful of local and provincial representatives aim to entice people from the Eastern European nation to transplant themselves to Manitoba.

"(Director of Economic and Community Development in Portage) Dean Yaremchuk and I, and a person from the province of Manitoba from their immigration department, are going to be going Kiev, Ukraine," Mayor Ken Brennan said. "We are leaving on Dec. 6."

Brennan said he`s not sure who will represent the province on the trip, which sees the group return to Canada Dec. 13.

http://www.portagedailygraphic.com/Article....aspx?e=1324062

 

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1208WNPG
Ciao bellissimo, Little Italy The menu of improvements for Corydon Avenue

Mamma Mia! Little Italy is getting a $750,000 facelift. The Corydon Avenue Business Improvement Zone plans to spend at least $750,000 over the next five to 10 years on improvements to Little Italy -- the popular seven-block strip of bars, restaurants, retail shops, offices and apartment blocks along Corydon Avenue between Pembina Highway and Stafford Street.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/35300509.html

 

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1208MTBA
Downturn isn`t hurting yet in Manitoba

Manitoba manufacturers and exporters have resolved to stop listening to all of the bad news about export projections and to just keep doing what they do.

That`s because despite the doom and gloom about the economy, Manitoba companies are not yet suffering too much pain in this downturn. Export Development Canada issued Manitoba export forecasts on Monday that were a lot less positive than earlier in the year. But even as they were being released, EDC officials acknowledged the numbers will likely be revised downwards again.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/35358094.html

 

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1208PORT
MLA still wants new hospital

Work is continuing to progress on a new $5-million, 650-square metre addition to the emergency department at Portage District General Hospital.

For the most part, these new improvements have been met with optimism from community officials, including those with the Regional Health Authority — Central Manitoba Inc. In June, Pat Nodrick, who is the Central RHA`s director of health services for Portage la Prairie, called the renovations are "a win-win for everyone." And last February, Portage Mayor Ken Brennan was quoted as saying: "We do have an excellent facility here."

http://www.portagedailygraphic.com/Article....aspx?e=1327697

 

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1208WNPG
Louise Bridge to be replaced

THE two-lane Louise Bridge is going to be replaced with a new four-lane span over the Red River, allowing city officials a chance to consider realigning the vital link between downtown and the east side of Winnipeg.

The 2009 capital budget calls for the Louise Bridge, the city`s second-oldest existing bridge, to be replaced in 2015 or 2016 with a new four-lane connection between Point Douglas and Elmwood. Built in 1911, the two-lane bridge is believed to be too old to be rehabilitated. So city engineers are planning to completely replace the often-congested span, either on the site of the existing north-south Louise Bridge or parallel to the east-west CPR Keewatin tracks, which would create a more direct link between downtown and Transcona.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/35458809.html

 

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1208MTBA
Main contract for dam awarded

Manitoba Hydro has awarded a $289-million contract to construct the main portion of the Wuskwatim hydro generating station -- a deal, it says, that will ensure the project`s completion nine months earlier than previously scheduled.

Hydro announced Tuesday that a consortium made up of H.J. O`Connell Construction Ltd., of St. John`s, Nfld., Neilson Inc. of Saint-Nicholas, Que., and EBC Inc. of L`Ancienne-Lorette, Que., had submitted the winning bid. The contract entails building earth dams and dikes, rock excavation, constructing the concrete structures that comprise the generating station and maintaining roads and cofferdams.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/35458989.html

 

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1208MTBA
Manitoba Housing plans to renovate nearly 900 units

Manitoba Housing will completely gut, renovate and retrofit every suite in some of its largest properties in Winnipeg, including Gilbert Park, the largest housing complex in the province. The public housing authority made the announcement yesterday in a vacant Gilbert Park suite where work has already begun -- and where a partly melted back door vandalized by arsonists stood as a reminder not only of the need to improve the housing stock but also of the need to give residents a vested interest in the properties.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/Winnipeg/2...613291-sun.html

 

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1208PORT
No homes for Portage newcomers

Lydia Parrott and her cat Dexter just moved to Portage la Prairie a little more than month ago. As it stands, both Parrott and her feline ward are still looking for a rental space to call their own. "It has been tricky," she says, "to find a vacancy that is affordable and will allow pets."

"I did find a few townhouses in the north, but they were too expensive for what was offered," stated Parrott. So far, Parrott has tried about half-a-dozen landlords, and she still can`t find a home.

So what is it about Portage that makes it so difficult to find a rental space?

http://www.portagedailygraphic.com/Article....aspx?e=1329865

 

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1208MTBA
Boreal forest critical to Manitoba`s econony: study

The boreal forest on the east side of Lake Winnipeg pumps $130 million into Manitoba`s economy every year, according to a new study meant to bolster the province`s pitch for a UNESCO world heritage site.

The cash from the proposed park flows into the economy from fishing, camping, trapping and even the value of river water that eventually powers northern Hydro dams.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Bor...nony_study.html

 

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1208MTBA
U of M needs international focus, says president

THE University of Manitoba must emphasize areas where it can achieve international recognition -- even if it means cutting back in some other areas, president David Barnard declared Wednesday.

Barely five months into the job, he held his first in a series of town halls for about 150 staff and students. "I`d really like to address the reputational category in Maclean`s," said Barnard -- not so much to influence the magazine`s rankings, but to affect how U of M thinks about itself and how others see it, said Barnard.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/35526594.html

 

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1208WNPG
Heritage building to get remake

A prominent downtown heritage building near the heart of Winnipeg`s financial district is about to get a multimillion-dollar makeover. The Brick`s Fine Furniture building at 111 Lombard Ave. has been sold to a group of investors that plans to spend millions of dollars over the next two years to upgrade the six-storey, 118,000-square-foot structure to LEED Silver energy-efficiency standards. But exactly how much hasn`t yet been determined.

"We`re still at the very beginning stages and we`re working with an architect," said Joe Diner, a veteran commercial real estate agent with DTZ Barnicke Winnipeg and one of the listing agents for the building.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/...get_remake.html

 

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1208WNPG
City house prices keep rising

The cost of existing homes in Winnipeg escalated at one of the fastest rates in the country in 2008, according to the latest housing report from RE/MAX Canada.

"With a limited supply of listings for most of the year, (property) values smashed all previous records...," the real estate firm said in its Housing Market Outlook for 2009 report released Wednesday. It predicted Winnipeg will finish the year with an average selling price of $207,882 -- a 22 per cent increase from 2007`s average of $170,502 .

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/35526704.html

 

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1208MTBA
Tax cuts, infrastructure spending going ahead: Doer

Manitoba won`t import the political paralysis that`s gripped Ottawa over the past week and will instead embrace a steady-as-she-goes approach to protect the province from a gathering economic storm, Premier Gary Doer told a luncheon crowd today.

At his annual state-of-the province address to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce today, the premier said Manitoba is going ahead with tax cuts to business and accelerated infrastructure-renewal spending to boost the local economy and give business a sense of predictability in unpredictable times.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/bre...ahead_Doer.html

 

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1208MTBA
Labour-sponsored fund coming to Manitoba

SASKATCHEWAN`S largest labour-sponsored investment fund is poised to enter the Manitoba market with the hope of reviving that moribund sector in this province.

Golden Opportunities Fund Inc. has applied to the province for registration and has filed a preliminary prospectus with securities regulators in the hopes of making its shares available to Manitoba investors by early January. Golden Opportunities would offer the typical 15 per cent federal and 15 per cent provincial tax credits (up to a maximum of $2,550 in annual tax credits) as well as being RRSP-eligible up to certain limits.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/35590829.html

 

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1208WNPG
Housing plan to meet needs of seniors

The province wants to make Manitoba the most age-friendly part of Canada. To stake this claim, the latest brick in the government`s $121-million Aging in Place strategy was announced yesterday at Chez Nous, a supportive housing complex for seniors on De La Cathedrale Avenue.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/Winnipeg/2...639636-sun.html

 

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1208WNPG
Doer wants stadium deal ready for feds

A new stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers came closer to reality Friday as all but one of the main players met with Premier Gary Doer to hash out the final details. "We are making steady progress," stadium proponent and businessman David Asper said. "If I could have deal tomorrow, I would."

Asper, Canwest Global Communications Corp.`s executive vice-president, and University of Manitoba officials met with Doer yesterday morning. Mayor Sam Katz was not at the meeting as he had a family commitment.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Doe...y_for_feds.html

 

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1208MTBA
Province ducks job-cutting axe

Manitoba escaped relatively unscathed Friday from the most devastating national jobs report in 25 years. Canada lost almost 71,000 jobs last month -- the worst single-month drop in a quarter century -- with Ontario emerging as ground zero of the growing economic crisis.

Ontario shed 66,000 workers -- 42,000 of them factory jobs -- pushing the province`s unemployment rate up six-tenths of a point to 7.1 per cent in November.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/...tting_axe_.html

 

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MB Small Town Updates: 2008-12-07

 

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1208WNPG
Ideal time to buy, but `cash is king`

Winnipeg could be a port in the storm for commercial real estate investors in 2009. Industry officials say that not only are the market fundamentals stronger here than in most other Canadian markets, but the deepening financial crisis and economic recession will force more property owners to sell their properties.

"This increased supply will be a tremendous buying opportunity for contrarian investors who are long on real estate and are comfortable with the market fundamentals in Winnipeg," Ken Yee, executive vice-president of Cushman & Wakefield LePage Brokerage Services, said in an interview.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/...sh_is_king.html