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This article was published 8/11/2016 (1415 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg is one of the fastest-growing technology markets in Canada, according to a new report by CBRE Limited.

In its inaugural 2017 Scoring Canadian Tech Talent report, released Monday, the commercial real estate firm said tech employment in Winnipeg has grown 58.5 per cent in the past five years. Of the 10 cities examined in the report, that’s second only to Waterloo, Ont., which had growth of 74.5 per cent.

Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files Winnipeg’s Innovation Alley in the Exchange District.

The CBRE study also found due to lower salaries and office rents, Winnipeg is also the cheapest city in Canada for a typical tech firm to do business. The average yearly cost for a company with 500 employees and a 75,000-square-foot office is $30.7 million. That is more than $9 million cheaper than the most expensive city, Calgary, which comes in at $39.8 million.

Two other factors working in Winnipeg’s favour are its affordable housing and its fast-growing millennial population, Raymond Wong, CBRE’s director of research in Canada, said.

He noted the average monthly rent for a purpose-built apartment in Winnipeg is $925, compared with $1,210 in Toronto and $1,268 in Vancouver. He also said its millennial population grew at the fastest pace of any of the 10 cities between 2009 and 2014, at 15 per cent. He said that’s significant for the tech industry because 20- to 29-year-olds tend to be more tech savvy.

"So when you look at Winnipeg... there is an opportunity, especially in the tech sector, for growth," Wong said. "We think the tech sector will be one of the major driving forces for job creation and employment over the next five years."

Wong admitted there were some areas where Winnipeg didn’t stack up as favourably.

For example, the report looked at 33 different metrics and came up with an overall tech ranking for each of the 10 cities. Winnipeg’s score of 16.88 out of 100 was second lowest. Top-ranked Toronto had a ranking of 83.94.

But Wong downplayed the significance of that, saying it’s mitigated by the high marks Winnipeg gets for affordability and millennial-population growth.

"For all of the Canadian cities, there is always room for improvement. But I think it (Winnipeg) starts out at a very good place in the way of availability of labour and affordability," he added.

Kathy Knight, CEO of the Information and Communications Technology Association of Manitoba, agreed there were many positives to be taken from the CBRE report.

Knight said it’s also important to remember there hasn’t been as much investment in the tech sector here as in some other provinces.

"It’s really just starting to happen here," she said. "So I think in part we are a little bit behind some of the other jurisdictions that have kind of woken up to this huge opportunity a little bit faster than we have. But we’re heading in the right direction, absolutely.

"I think the recognition of what an investment in the tech sector can do for this province is starting to gain a lot of traction."

She agreed there is a need for more tech workers in Manitoba, and one of the ways to address that need is by attracting more women, indigenous youth and skilled immigrants to the industry.

"One of the advantages to being somewhat behind the curve on this is that we can learn a lot from what hasn’t worked in other jurisdictions," she said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca