CentrePort Canada is a dry port located in Winnipeg and Rosser, Manitoba. It was created in 2008 by provincial legislation called the CentrePort Canada Act. The Act established the mandate of CentrePort Canada and designated 20,000 acres to the tri-modal dry port, situated adjacent to the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. CentrePort Canada offers greenfield investment opportunities for a wide variety of business operations including distribution, warehousing and manufacturing.
In addition to a 24/7 international cargo airport, CentrePort Canada provides access to three class I rail carriers and national and international trucking routes. The Governments of Manitoba and Canada have invested $212.4 million for CentrePort Canada Way, a 10 km expressway to better connect companies in the dry port to key gateways and corridors, which opened in November 2013. In March 2014, the Province of Manitoba announced it will double CentrePort Canada Way to by-pass the RM of Headingley and connect directly into the TransCanada Highway.
Winnipeg, and the dry port are located near the geographic centre of North America. The city has direct connections to both the Port of Vancouver, and the Port of Prince Rupert, Canada's only major Pacific ports. Winnipeg also has a direct connection to Churchill, Manitoba, a major grain export facility and the only Canadian deep-water Arctic port.
CentrePort Canada is one of a growing number of inland terminals in North America and faces competition from other prairie centres such as Port Alberta or the Global Transportation Hub in Regina.
Since CentrePort's inception, 220 acres have been sold to 42 new companies in two business parks on the CentrePort footprint. This includes the sell-out of phase 2 of DTZ Winnipeg’s Brookside Industrial Park West. Three companies that opened facilities in the last several months in the business parks include: ISCO Industries, Arctic Beverages and SMS Equipment.
In 2016, CentrePort is breaking ground on a new 700-acre Rail Park, which was triggered by a $25 million private investment from BroadGrain Commodities to build a grain handling facility and bean processing plant.