Winnipeg, Manitoba is located in the middle of Canada, many miles from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and a considerable distance from the Great Lakes. However the city plays an important role in both East-West and North South trade. It serves as a natural connection point between Atlantic shipping lanes and the Asia Pacific Gateway and as the northern terminus of the fast-growing mid-continent trade corridor that runs from Churchill, Manitoba in the north through Chicago, Kansas City, and Dallas all the way to the southern tip of Mexico.

Manitoba’s trade with its NAFTA partners continued to grow in 2008. Trade with Mexico grew to $676 million, up from $436 million in 2004, while trade with the U.S. increased to $21.33 billion, up from $15.38 billion in 2004. Canada’s trilateral trade also continues to increase. Trade with the U.S. grew to $580 billion in 2008, up from $535 billion in 2004, while trade with Mexico rose to $23 billion in 2008, up from $16.4 billion in 2004.

A new job-creating investment contained in the Harper Government’s Economic Action Plan is designed to build an "inland port" around Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. The port is intended to take advantage of the city's proximity to the geographic centre of North America. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are jointly funding the next phase of this project that will result in the creation of a corporation to oversee the "port", and to fast track "investment and economic development decisions based upon a single, comprehensive transportation, infrastructure and land-use plan" for approximately 20,000 acres of land around the airport.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Manitoba Premier Gary Doer recently announced that they will spend more than $212 million to build CentrePort Canada Way, which is a four-lane divided expressway linking the 20,000-acre inland port to the Perimeter Highway. A portion of the $175 million that Canada is providing to Manitoba under the Provincial-Territorial Base Fund will be allocated to this initiative, which has a total eligible cost of $136.7 million. The initial phases of the CentrePort Canada initiative also received federal funding, including the twinning of Inkster Boulevard ($33.25 million federal contribution). Under the Building Canada Plan, the Government of Canada is providing more than $853 million for infrastructure improvements in Manitoba. The federal and provincial governments announced earlier this year that Manitoba communities would benefit from more than $123 million in infrastructure investments under the Communities Component of the Building Canada Fund. Federal and provincial contributions for this investment total $82 million and the communities will provide the remainder of the funding.

CentrePort Canada is centrally and strategically located at the heart of North America to connect businesses to world markets. Three major railways, CN, CP and the BNSF all come to Winnipeg. Five of the country’s largest truckers have offices in the city. Winnipeg also boats a 24/7 cargo airport that is open year round. This inland port will offer access via road, air and rail to all corners of North America. The CentrePort Canada initiative involves using the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport and surrounding land as a hub to import goods from Asia and Europe and then distributing those goods throughout North America.

The selling point for CentrePort Canada has been location, location, location. The changing seascape in the Arctic has opened the opportunity to shorten shipping routes, open new trade avenues for Manitoba and Canada with international partners through Canada's only major international Arctic Seaport at the Port of Churchill. The "Arctic Bridge" as its being called connects with the Port of Murmansk, Russia, allowing for trade opportunities that were unavailable only years ago. Further development will also lead to increased commerce opportunities for those communities located in the both Arctic regions. Further development of the marine link between Russia and Manitoba is being planned from establishing working groups, doing test flights and shipments, and continuing to improve communications amongst all industry stakeholders.