Why Winnipeg

Why Winnipeg? Why Manitoba?

Despite its reputation for a wintry clime, Winnipeg is considered by many residents to be “Canada’s best-kept secret”. This mid-sized city is livable and culturally diverse in terms of its people and amenities (outstanding classical and contemporary music, other arts, food and myriad winter and summer festivals). The University of Winnipeg is a small, rapidly growing university in the heart of downtown and the Department of Biology is situated in the brand new science facility, Richardson College for the Environment.

Manitoba is blessed with abundant natural resources, from the grasslands on the great plains through the boreal forest on the Canadian Shield, to Arctic Tundra in the north. It is home to three of the world's largest lakes, and the wetlands of the Red River delta are among the most productive in the world. Manitoba is on a major flyway for migratory birds, and is the northern home of monarch butterflies that make their way north from Mexico. Manitoba's fish and wildlife are the envy of the world, and make their home in a large but lightly populated province. At 647,000 square kilometers, Manitoba is nearly three times as large as Germany, but with only 1/70th of the population. For those interested in ecology, conservation biology, natural resource management and the environmental sciences, the wide open spaces of Manitoba are an undiscovered country.

Winnipeg Biotech

The life sciences in general are a rapidly growing area of the Manitoba economy, particularly with the growing emphasis on biotechnology where Manitoba is the leader in western Canada. The University of Winnipeg is located in downtown Winnipeg that is home to BioMed City, a consortium of public and private companies and institutions focused on biotechnology and biomedical research. Manitoba’s biotech industry has grown rapidly and the province is home to 41 companies with 2,300 employees. Eight percent of the total number of biotech companies in the country are in Manitoba and one third of Canada’s pharmaceutical exports come from the province. The province is not only home to well-established private companies such as Cangene, Biovail, Apotex Fermentation and Medicure, but is also home to world-class research facilities, such as the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health.