Winnipeg Free Press Business page

BUSINESS

Leahey envisions a high-tech 'innovation corridor' downtown.
(Free Press photo illustration)

"SILICONE ALLEY" EYED

By Murray McNeill
Business Reporter

PLANS ARE in the works to develop a Manitoba-made ``silicone alley'' in downtown Winnipeg.

The federal and provincial governments are funding a $40,000 study of the feasibility of establishing an innovation corridor, or centre for high-tech companies, in the downtown area.

It's the brainchild of the Manitoba Innovation Network (MIN), which has been pressing for a new provincial strategy to deal with the shift from an industrial-based to a digital economy, and the high-tech jobs it would bring.

The innovation corridor would draw new people and companies -- and inject new life -- into the downtown, said Stephen Leahey, president of the innnovation network, which will do the study in conjunction with an advisory group of companies and institutions.

In the corridor concept, 20 to 25 small companies from such information-based sectors as news media, network applications, health telematics and Internet-based education and training would be housed in one or more older downtown buildings.

The buildings would be equipped to provide tenants with reliable, affordable, high-speed access to the Internet through the city's system of fibre-optic and broadband networks.

The tenants would be given assistance in such areas as leadership, technology transfer, industrial collaboration and management of their daily operations.

MIN recently completed an 89-page draft document that looked at what Manitoba needs to successfully compete for jobs in the new digital economy. One of its key recommendations is that the province create an innovation corridor.

Leahey said yesterday that Winnipeg has a variety of small, high-tech firms that are trying to develop new digital products and services. But they often work in isolation from each other and have limited access to new technologies such as reliable, high-speed access to the Internet.

The creation of an innovation corridor would solve both of those problems, he added.

J Waschuk, design director for Intrinsix Canada, a Winnipeg-based computer company that specializes in designing and managing Internet websites for other companies, said creating a downtown innovation corridor would help solve some of his company's biggest technology problems.

Waschuk said the lack of reliable, affordable, high-speed access to the Internet is forcing his Winnipeg office to pass up work that instead goes to the company's satellite offices in New York, Calgary or Toronto.

Waschuk said Intrinsix, which has a staff of eight full-time workers and eight or nine part-timers, will soon have to start looking for larger quarters in the downtown area. He said the firm would consider moving into an innovation corridor if that option becomes available.

The federal and provincial governments sound like they are already sold on the corridor idea, based on what their officials said in announcing the feasibility study funding yesterday.

``The establishment of this innovation corridor for technology will ensure Winnipeg continues to lead in research and innovation in today's knowledge-based economy,'' said Ron Duhamel, federal secretary of state for Western Economic Diversification.

``Encouraging the growth of information-based industries is a priority for the province, one which will help enhance our global competitiveness and overall economic position into the next millennium,'' added Manitoba Finance Minister Harold Gilleshammer.

The feasibility study, which MIN hopes to submit to the two governments by the end of April, will outline what other North American cities are doing to encourage knowledge-based industries. It also will identify suitable locations for the proposed corridor, companies that might be interested in locating there, how much it will cost to operate, who the stakeholders would be and the role they would play in managing such a centre.

Leahey said an innovation corridor won't achieve its full potential unless governments, educators, private-sector firms and business organizations get involved.

``What we will have downtown will be a start, or a nucleus,'' he said. ``But we're all going to have to change.''

The feasibility study is being funded by a $40,000 contribution from the $40-million Canada/Manitoba Economic Development Partnership Agreement.

A total of $19 million in funding for 15 projects has been approved since the agreement was signed last year. That includes $214,000 for detailed architectural and engineering drawings for a proposed Smart Park at the University of Manitoba, and $3 million for improvements to Winnipeg Stadium.

Back