Manitoba is the easternmost of Canada’s three Prairie provinces. Manitoba lies in the geographic center of Canada. Until the late 19th century, fur trading was the province’s major economic activity. As large numbers of settlers came, agriculture became dominant. Manitoba was also a transportation and processing center for the agrarian west. In the 1940s and 1950s, industry gradually became the largest source of income.

Manitoba is a place that offers the advantages of big-city life, without the disadvantages. With low costs for land and power and some of the most affordable housing in Canada, Manitoba is a place where a dollar goes far. Manitoba has great strength in its wealth of hydroelectric power, diverse manufacturing base, rich mineral resources and fertile soil. A 2006 real estate survey has estimated the population of Manitoba at 1,148,401.

Brandon

Gimli

Kerry Francis
Sell Your Manitoba Cottage
Phone: 204-272-8605

Web Site
Sell or Rent Your Manitoba, Lake of the Woods or Lake Manitoba Narrows Cottage, Lot or Chalet Free.

Landmark

Catherine Klassen
Century 21 Gold Key Realty Ltd.
Phone: 204-326-4459
E-mail: eck@mb.sympatico.ca
Serving the southeast Manitoba bedroom communities of Winnipeg, including Landmark, Lorette, and Niverville.

Souris

Gary McDowell
Rural Realty & Consulting
Phone: 204-483-2404
E-mail: rrc@snug.mb.ca
Serving western Manitoba including Brandon and surrounding area. Specialize in farmland and business properties.

Steinbach

Sandi Kehler
Century 21 Vic Penner Realty
Phone: 204-326-4459
E-mail: kehlers@ccco.net
Over 10 years experience serving Steinbach and surrounding area.

The Pas

Dave Simes
Re/Max The Pas
Phone: 204-623-5454
E-mail: dsimes@mb.sympatico.ca
The Pas, Clearwater Lake - Commercial, Residential, Appraisal

Thompson

The black soil of southwestern Manitoba is part of an area of extremely fertile soil that extends over the Prairie provinces. This soil has enabled the three provinces to become Canada’s leading wheat growers. In the black-soil region of Manitoba there is a high concentration of farms devoted solely to wheat. Other grains are also grown, and on some farms the growing of cereal crops is combined with the raising of livestock.

The gray soil that occurs north of Winnipeg in the area surrounding the major lakes becomes quite fertile when fertilizers are added to counteract its heavy lime content. Oats and barley are grown in this region, and beef cattle, hogs, and poultry are raised. Other crops include flax grown for seed, rapeseed, potatoes, and sugar beets.

Around Winnipeg, farmers specialize in dairy products and vegetables in response to the needs of the Winnipeg market. The leading crop of the province is wheat. Barley, hay, and rapeseed are the next largest produced crops in the province.

Among the more unusual agricultural activities in Manitoba are the gathering of wild rice and medicinal herbs by indigenous peoples (Indians). The wild rice grows in marshes in the southeastern part of the province, particularly in Whiteshell Provincial Park.

Soil erosion in Manitoba is reduced by a number of conservation techniques. These include the planting of windbreaks or shelterbelts and the controlled planting of grains, which leave sparse plant residues after being harvested. Overplanting of grain crops is offset by seeding permanent forage crops, particularly in steeply sloping areas, and by planting special crops, such as potatoes, vegetables, and beets.

Although about half of Manitoba’s land area is forested, only three-fifths of the forestland is productive, or suitable for regular harvest. Nearly all of this productive forestland is located in the area adjacent to the large lakes and to the lower Saskatchewan River. Most of it is owned by the provincial government. Because of the small size of the trees on the productive forestland and the predominance of spruce and pine trees, three-fifths of the timber cut in the Manitoba forests is converted to wood pulp. An integrated forestry complex, including a lumber mill and a pulpwood processing plant, is located near The Pas. A second mill at Pine Falls produces newsprint.

Deposits of metallic ores have been discovered in a number of places within the Canadian Shield, the mineral-rich plateau of northern and central Manitoba. The first large discovery was the rich ore of the Flin Flon area, in 1915. The ore yielded gold, silver, copper, and zinc, and mining and smelting operations were begun after a railroad line was built into the Flin Flon area after 1928. In 1953 nickel operations began at Lynn Lake, north of Flin Flon, and subsequently at Thompson, northeast of Flin Flon. Nickel is Manitoba’s most valuable mineral product, accounting for 36 percent of the value of its mineral production in 1998. In the area near Thompson there is a fully integrated nickel-producing facility, where mining, concentration, smelting, and refining are carried out. Manitoba contains the only commercial tantalum mine in North America. It is located in the southeast at Bernic Lake, near the Oiseau River.

Construction materials, including gypsum, cement, sand, gravel, and building stone, are obtained in Manitoba. The most important nonmetal, however, is petroleum. The oil reserves are concentrated in the southwestern portion of the province, and their development began in 1951. The principal oil center for the area is Virden.

Manufacturing is important in Manitoba. The chief products are nonpoultry meat products; transportation equipment; commercial printed materials; newspapers, magazines, and periodicals; plastic products; farm implements; trucks, buses, and trailers; and dairy products.

Winnipeg’s early start as the urban center of the province gave the city and its surrounding area a commanding lead as a manufacturing center. The ample supply of inexpensive electricity and the city’s location where the transcontinental railroads cross the Red River Valley helped Winnipeg become an important center for manufacturing. The city has the greatest concentration of industry in the province. Other important industrial centers include Brandon, the home of Manitoba’s chemical industry; Thompson, a center for nickel refining; and Flin Flon, a metal processing center.

Almost all of Manitoba’s electricity comes from hydroelectric plants, which are owned and operated either by a provincial corporation, Manitoba Hydro, or by a municipal utility, Winnipeg Hydro. Until the 1960s the Winnipeg River supplied most of the electricity. Thereafter, the electrical needs of the new mining communities in the north led to the Nelson River power project. A huge 1.2 million kilowatt power plant at Kettle Rapids, on the Nelson River, was completed in 1975. In 1992 the Limestone Generating Station, Manitoba Hydro’s fifth and largest station on the Nelson River, was opened. Two transmission interconnections with the United States, completed in 1970 and 1976, permit the export of surplus power. A third one was completed in 1980. Because of abundant supplies, electric power in the province is inexpensive.

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