Date: January 21, 2022

Access to consistent and up to date population and employment projections is critical as Plan20-50 moves toward a second draft and as the Province of Manitoba and its partners undertake a regional servicing strategy. Using 2016 as a base line, the 2021 census data will be used to update the existing projections that were developed for the WMR in 2020 by urbanMetrics and metro economics.

In December of 2021 the Plan20-50 Population and Employment Working Group was formed and consists of stakeholders tasked to follow the update process and provide insight and support to the WMR staff and consultants as they work on updating the forecasts.

On January 21, 2022 the Plan20-50 Population and Employment Working Group met for the first time via Zoom and discussed the importance of Projections to Economic Development and Population and land economist and market expert Peter Thoma from urbanMetrics and Tom McCormack from Metro Economics presented Employment Projections 101.

Prominent site selector Gregg Wassmansdorf once again shared his expert tips (Wassmansdorf’s Top 8) emphasizing the importance of regional collaboration, regional planning and a long-term investment strategy for our growing region.