Winnipeg CMA in 5 years (2026)

[P&M40BELOW]

Winnipeg and Manitoba really need to do everything possible to get our provincial population to 2mil and Winnipegs population to 1.5 million. We are too small and at an awkward size to effectively pay for better infrastructure. Winnipeg has great bones and would be an amazing city at 1.8 million people, however most likely none of us will see that.

[Wpgstvsouth94]

Originally Posted by P&M40BELOW

Winnipeg and Manitoba really need to do everything possible to get our provincial population to 2mil and Winnipegs population to 1.5 million. We are too small and at an awkward size to effectively pay for better infrastructure. Winnipeg has great bones and would be an amazing city at 1.8 million people, however most likely none of us will see that.

I completely agree! Winnipeg needs to grow so the infrastructure finally grows with it. More taxpayers means better infrastructure. I want to see a freeway through the city finally come to fruition

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by Wpgstvsouth94

I completely agree! Winnipeg needs to grow so the infrastructure finally grows with it. More taxpayers means better infrastructure. I want to see a freeway through the city finally come to fruition

I'm a highway nerd and can't wait for Perimeter to be a freeway, and maybe the inner ring road gets upgraded in my lifetime, but I sure as hell hope there is never a freeway that gets carved through the city, which I assumed from your comment was through or near Downtown.

[Wpgstvsouth94]

Originally Posted by WildCake

I'm a highway nerd and can't wait for Perimeter to be a freeway, and maybe the inner ring road gets upgraded in my lifetime, but I sure as hell hope there is never a freeway that gets carved through the city, which I assumed from your comment was through or near Downtown.

Nothing expropriating related. Upgrading existing expressways such as bishop grandin, lag, chief peguis. Convert old train tracks or hydro corridors. Convert the rapid transit corridor from dtown to the south etc!

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by Wpgstvsouth94

Nothing expropriating related. Upgrading existing expressways such as bishop grandin, lag, chief peguis. Convert old train tracks or hydro corridors. Convert the rapid transit corridor from dtown to the south etc!

Or how about we improve our public transportation because that’s proven to handle higher traffic loads then roads and freeways anyway?

And you want to get rid of the 1 rapid transit line we have for a freeway? Do you know how vital of a service the blue line is now for university students and downtown commuters in SW Winnipeg…

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by WildCake

I'm a highway nerd and can't wait for Perimeter to be a freeway, and maybe the inner ring road gets upgraded in my lifetime, but I sure as hell hope there is never a freeway that gets carved through the city, which I assumed from your comment was through or near Downtown.

I don't think that will ever happen but as mentioned, there are existing roads that could be converted into freeways. If we can do that then we should.

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

Or how about we improve our public transportation because that’s proven to handle higher traffic loads then roads and freeways anyway?

And you want to get rid of the 1 rapid transit line we have for a freeway? Do you know how vital of a service the blue line is now for university students and downtown commuters in SW Winnipeg…

I agree, but cars aren't going anywhere, a freeway would be nice. I think we need to improve both rapid transit and roads. Winnipeg deserves better rapid transit and roads.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by WildCake

I'm a highway nerd and can't wait for Perimeter to be a freeway, and maybe the inner ring road gets upgraded in my lifetime, but I sure as hell hope there is never a freeway that gets carved through the city, which I assumed from your comment was through or near Downtown.

Hasn't the complaint always been our downtown is way too big and with all the surface parking lots and portage place issue it might actually be a benefit to our downtown ha ha

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by Luisito

I agree, but cars aren't going anywhere, a freeway would be nice. I think we need to improve both rapid transit and roads. Winnipeg deserves better rapid transit and roads.

Don’t get me wrong I’m (mostly) anti-freeway because even building the interchanges completely diminishes walkability and increases noise to the point where it will dramatically reduce property values for areas adjacent to said freeway. Building rapid transit on the other hand increases property values, allows for higher density development, is more economically and environmentally sustainable, and allows for a more vibrant area.

If we were to build a freeway it should only be the perimeter to act as a Winnipeg bypass. I don’t even believe in having Kenaston, Bishop, Peguis turned into a freeway because rapid transit would never work on these roads then. We also have bike lanes on most of the inner ring road so with some adjustments in land use we could theoretically get pedestrian activity on these major thoroughfares. Widening Route 90 for example should only be considered if it’s to have rapid transit on route 90.

Also, why aren’t cars going anywhere? Gas prices are through the roof and owning a car eats at a significant portion of one’s disposable income. I would argue we are just beginning a push to move away from car-dependency and into more efficient modes of transportation especially as we grow as a city. Most major cities become more walkable as they get larger not less. If we want to start being serious about becoming a major city that means we must go full throttle into creating said walkable neighborhoods.

I took a trip to LA in the summer and their metro stations are literally on the freeway. And my god was it a horrendous experience I couldn’t even imagine being a pedestrian in that city.

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by thurmas

Hasn't the complaint always been our downtown is way too big and with all the surface parking lots and portage place issue it might actually be a benefit to our downtown ha ha

Downtown is not a thoroughfare for cars and if we treat it as such crime and social issues will only get worse.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

Don’t get me wrong I’m (mostly) anti-freeway because even building the interchanges completely diminishes walkability and increases noise to the point where it will dramatically reduce property values for areas adjacent to said freeway. Building rapid transit on the other hand increases property values, allows for higher density development, is more economically and environmentally sustainable, and allows for a more vibrant area.

Well i agree about giant interchanges. They should be no where near downtown. I am not for tearing down any neighborhoods. Freeways can be built with out causing too much damage or going to close to downtown.

If we were to build a freeway it should only be the perimeter to act as a Winnipeg bypass. I don’t even believe in having Kenaston, Bishop, Peguis turned into a freeway because rapid transit would never work on these roads then. .

I agree with Kenaston but the other two could very easily be turned into a freeway and have enough room to improve bus service on those roads.

Also, why aren’t cars going anywhere? Gas prices are through the roof and owning a car eats at a significant portion of one’s disposable income. I would argue we are just beginning a push to move away from car-dependency and into more efficient modes of transportation especially as we grow as a city. Most major cities become more walkable as they get larger not less. If we want to start being serious about becoming a major city that means we must go full throttle into creating said walkable neighborhoods.

Do you know anyone giving up their car? Because i don't. Maybe if we actually had efficient modes of transportation, but even then i don't see a major drop in people driving cars. I know people buying electric vehicles more and more. If we want to become serious about becoming a major city, we have to take both rapid transit AND improving roads more serious.

I took a trip to LA in the summer and their metro stations are literally on the freeway. And my god was it a horrendous experience I couldn’t even imagine being a pedestrian in that city.

LOL I was a pedestrian in LA for several years and yes its was pretty bad but not terrible. Not all of the LRT is on the freeway. The actual metro trains are underground. LA has actually done a good job at building rapid transit. The bulk of what they have has been built in the last two or three decades and they are still building. Yeah generally speaking LA is not great for pedestrians. It's improving though.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by WildCake

I'm a highway nerd and can't wait for Perimeter to be a freeway, and maybe the inner ring road gets upgraded in my lifetime, but I sure as hell hope there is never a freeway that gets carved through the city, which I assumed from your comment was through or near Downtown.

I think it would be possible to to have a freeway get people relatively close to downtown without carving up major portions of neighbourhoods. I envision a scenario where part of the CP yards are dug down and a sunken freeway gets put in there that takes you to route 90 near RRC. As long as there aren't too many new disruptions at existing crossings of the area it wouldn't be that bad. The whole freeway could be trenched and then streets could cross it and sidewalks could be maintained at regular grade. You woudln't even know it's there unless you were right over top of it. You could even create greenspace over top of it closer to downtown to add to the cohesion with the North End. The freeway could continue as a tunnel through Point Douglas to the east side of DT.

On the east side, there's a bit of an industrial wasteland from Archibald over to Lag. Similar treatment there. For both you can leave a little room for RT in the same ROW. This would allow people to get in and out of downtown quickly. The big challenge is the outlets to get off the freeway DT.

If Lag were also upgraded it would provide an effective alternative to people traversing downtown to get to other parts of the city. You get the dual bonus of taking cross-town traffic out of downtown and thus relieve the pressure on the roads there (and allow the P&M naysayers to not worry so much about the traffic disruptions) and make it easier to get around generally.

To me, upgrading some of our key routes to freeways would be a net positive for many downtown streets that currently have heavy traffic on them (like Provencher). Giving heavy traffic an alternative to making the pedestrian experience miserable would be a good thing. I'm not advocating tearing up any neighbourhoods that currently exist, but I am advocating using some of the existing industrial wasteland now while it's available (ish) to improve transportation overall. I am also in favour of good transit. We need both.

[GreyGarden]

I came across this article in the Statistics Canada thread:

https://betterdwelling.com/canadas-y...c-nova-scotia/

So did Manitoba gain more people in the 18-24 category than we lost? If so that must be a first since I started paying attention. We’re still losing on the 25-44 category.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

On the east side, there's a bit of an industrial wasteland from Archibald over to Lag. Similar treatment there. For both you can leave a little room for RT in the same ROW. This would allow people to get in and out of downtown quickly. The big challenge is the outlets to get off the freeway DT.

If Lag were also upgraded it would provide an effective alternative to people traversing downtown to get to other parts of the city. You get the dual bonus of taking cross-town traffic out of downtown and thus relieve the pressure on the roads there (and allow the P&M naysayers to not worry so much about the traffic disruptions) and make it easier to get around generally.

I agree I think lag is a perfect candidate to be turned into a freeway. Parts of it already feel like a freeway. There is more than enough room to improve and upgrade Lag to a freeway from the south perimeter to the north perimeter all the way to birds hill.

More than enough room for an extra lane in each direction.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8750...7i16384!8i8192


https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8697...7i16384!8i8192

south end of Lag.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8363...7i16384!8i8192

north of regent.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8985...7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.9074...7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.9184...7i16384!8i8192

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by Luisito

I agree I think lag is a perfect candidate to be turned into a freeway. Parts of it already feel like a freewa. There is more than enough room to improve and upgrade Lag to a freeway from the south perimeter to the north perimeter all the way to birds hill.

More than enough room for an extra lane in each direction.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8750...7i16384!8i8192


https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8697...7i16384!8i8192

south end of Lag.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8363...7i16384!8i8192

north of regent.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8985...7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.9074...7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.9184...7i16384!8i8192

I agree that there's certainly room to get it done in many places (and of course some of these intersections will have to be eliminated completely), but it will certainly be a challenge and quite expensive. I think the worst bits will be the area around regent and reenders (I would propose a trenched portion from the rail overpass to the concordia overpass), the area around Fermor (will require significant reworking), and grassie. There is no easy project overall, but these are the most difficult engineering problems or disruptive land acquisitions problems. Due to years of mismanagement, the project will be very costly and complex, unfortunately. Seems to be a trend. I really don't understand some of the small access points that have been allowed to get onto major expressways like this and bishop, seemingly without considering that at some point, the cost of upgrading the road would become unwieldly.

[NewIreland]

I've heard from several people that Winnipeg's hotels are full of Ukrainians. That's good for population growth.

[Luisito]

Does anyone know how many Ukrainians have landed in Winnipeg since the conflict started?

[Jack1983]

Originally Posted by Luisito

Does anyone know how many Ukrainians have landed in Winnipeg since the conflict started?

CBC had an article a couple of week saying more than 5000 refugees have arrived in MB. That is a very significant number...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...toba-1.6594592

[esquire]

I have heard that some (not sure exactly how many) have left and returned to Ukraine, particularly those from the western parts of the country that are unaffected or less affected by the war. So it is certainly possible that we may have already reached the high water mark for now.

[Luisito]

It's sad they had to leave because of war. Glad so many chose Winnipeg as their new home though. Makes sense considering the existing Ukrainian community already here.

There is a Ukrainian Catholic church near my place and two not to far from my parents house. I have always been curious to attend a service. The churches look so nice

[esquire]

I think as with most foreigners, when they think of Canada they primarily think of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal. Which makes sense. But Winnipeg does offer certain advantages, namely a lower cost of living and both formal and informal networks that can assist people from Ukraine. So that has probably attracted some people from Ukraine, once they are made aware.

"Formal" in the sense that there are various organizations that can help, "informal" in the sense that there are many people, often of Ukrainian heritage, who will be sympathetic to the plight of refugees. Case in point, one woman I know whose only connection to Ukraine is the fact that her great grandparents immigrated from there like a hundred years ago, brought a refugee into her house and helped her find a job and just generally get settled. There are a lot of people like that who are inclined to lend a hand.