Infrastructure & Access

Winnipeg is connected.

The Winnipeg Richardson International Airport is one of the top cargo airports in Canada, offering 24/7 operations year-round. It is not only incredibly resilient, operating in all weather conditions, but also provides 24-hour Canada Customs services and is a certified transshipment point.

An aviation fuel tax refund is available on international cargo flights from Manitoba.

Winnipeg is the only city on the Canadian prairies served by three continental Class 1 railways.

Canadian National Railway (CN) connects three coasts — Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), meanwhile, extends south to multiple ports in Mexico on both the Gulf and Pacific coasts. And the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) services the western two-thirds of the U.S., parts of Canada and key Mexican gateways.​

Shipping by rail in Canada offers significant cost advantages due to federal inter-switching regulations​. We have forced competition, so you won’t get stuck with higher prices from local railroads, along with set rates from the Canadian Transport Agency to keep prices reasonable.

​CN’s Symington Yard, the centerpiece of its transcontinental network, can handle more than 3,000 cars per day​.

Winnipeg has long punched above its weight in transportation and logistics. The city’s establishment as a freight and logistics hub is the result of decades of investment, connectivity and coordination. Industry leaders, including Bison Transport, TransX, Arnold Bros. Transport and Gardewine continue to choose Winnipeg as their North American base of operations.

About 1,200 trucks cross the Manitoba-U.S. border at Emerson/Pembina, ND every day, making it one of Canada’s busiest crossings. It’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all commercial traffic.

A market of more than 100 million people can be accessed within a 24-hour drive of Winnipeg, providing significant advantages for regional distribution.

Global companies can also look to Winnipeg for its niche logistics, value-added manufacturing and trade-based operations.

Fast facts:

• 80 per cent of Manitoba's merchandise trade with the U.S.is transported by truck.
• About 400,000 commercial trucks cross the Manitoba-U.S. border every year.
• There are nearly 500 for-hire trucking companies headquartered in Manitoba.
• Winnipeg is a one-hour drive to one of the busiest U.S. border crossings in Canada, with a standard wait time of 10 minutes or less.

Winnipeg’s strength in this sector is no accident — it’s backed by a highly-skilled workforce, industry-aligned training programs at our post-secondary institutions and a provincial government that actively favours logistics investment.

Winnipeg has long been the gateway to the north.

The Port of Churchill is poised to play a critical role as a strategic shipping centre. With four deep sea berths and storage capacity already in place, the port can offer a new route – the Arctic Trade Corridor – to ship Western Canada’s critical minerals, forestry, energy and agricultural products to international markets.

At the heart of Winnipeg’s logistics infrastructure is CentrePort Canada, one of North America’s largest tri-modal inland ports. Spanning 20,000 acres, CentrePort connects three Class I railroads, 24-hour international air cargo at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, the Trans-Canada Highway and many provincial highways.

CentrePort is also efficient. CentrePort Canada Rail Park, a 665-acre industrial project, offers businesses direct access to CPKC’s new east-west and north-south networks, providing direct service to Mexico via the Midwest U.S. and Texas. CentrePort also provides access to CN and BNSF tracks, too.

For companies doing cross-border trade, these ports offer a rare and highly-valuable advantage.

CentrePort is also designated as a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ), which streamlines customs and tax processes for both importers and exporters.