Toronto Maple Leaf's Dave Andreychuk puts the puck past Winnipeg Jet's goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to score Toronto's first goal of the game during NHL action in Toronto March 13. mb/ Photo by Mike Blake REUTERSMike Blake/Reuters
A number of readers took issue with my comments in our Winnipeg discussion that I didn't think the city's corporate base was much bigger than it was 15 years ago or that the city was much wealthier.
Brent Bellamy is part of that corporate base. He argues Winnipeg may not be a Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver but it "is a far wealthier place than it was in the mid-1990s." To bolster his argument, Mr. Bellamy sends along an interesting set of numbers:
Population:
1994: 676,000
2010: 750,000
Average house value:
1994: $84,000 (Canadian average $158,000)
2009: $227,000 (Canadian average $340,000)
Total value of building permits issued:
1994: $300-million
2009: $1.1-billion
Housing starts:
1994: 972
2010: 3,200
Average household income:
1994: $43,000 (Canadian average $49,000)
2010: $72,000 (Canadian average $70,500)
Unemployment rate
1994: 10.4% (Canadian average 9.5%)
2010: 4.9% (Canadian average 8.1%) (best in Canada)
Total employment
1994: 318,000
2010: 425,000
Retail sales:
1994: $4.3-billion
2010: $9.8-billion
GDP per capita
1994: $21,100 (Canada $26,700)
2009: $37,500 (Canada $39,000)
Personal disposable income per capita:
1994: $17,700
2010: $29,900
Difference: +170% increase
NHL average ticket Prices:
1994: $34
2010: $49
Difference: +140% increase
Corporate head offices, companies of all sizes:
Edmonton: 157
Winnipeg: 129
Ottawa: 101
Corporate head offices, total employment:
Winnipeg: 6,890
Ottawa: 4,667
Edmonton: 3,428
Canada's 800 largest corporations:
Winnipeg: 32 plus three 3 subsidiaries = 35
Edmonton: 25 plus one subsidiary = 26
Quebec City: 16 plus two subsidiaries = 18
Ottawa: 15 plus one subsidiary = 16