Currency exchange in Winnipeg is limit to banks or credit unions, kiosks and dealers. Shopping around for currency exchange service if the exchange amount is over $500 Canadain for most customers. Make sure to compare rate at the same time, ask fee structure beside exchange and inquire about time frame to settle the fund.
Usually banks do not keep foreign currency banknotes in stock, customers have to order with banks and wait for 3 - 5 business days to pick up. In addition, when you sell your foreign banknotes to local banks, banks may not pay you immediately, banks need to send your banknotes to their back office to vertify.
Currency exchange kiosk in airport target customers who are looking for convenient service, small amount exchange. Usually the fee or the rate are not favourable for customers.
The general rule is the more convenient location, the less favourable rate and higer fees.
There are a few currency exchange dealers in Winnipeg. Different companies have different specilities, some focus on cash exchagne, some others conduct currency exchange by wire transfer. When you comapre the rates, please try to get quote witnin 30 minutes, becasue currency exchange rates are constantly changeing, also ask the fees they charge beside exchange.
Each currency exchange dealers, which include banks, credit unions and other dealers, offer similar but different rate. The difference is getting more significantly, when the exchange amount is getter larger, such as over $10,000 Canadian dollar. Shop around is still the best way to get the best currency exchange rate. Please make sure when you compare the rate, ask when the money will be available, what is other fees. The general idea is the more convenient locaiton, the worse rate applied.
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. The city is named after the nearby Lake Winnipeg; the name comes from the Western Cree words for muddy water. The region was a trading centre for Indigenous peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738. A settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers of the Red River Colony in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. As at 2016, Winnipeg is the seventh-most populated municipality in Canada, with a resident population of about 778,500. Being far inland, the local climate is extremely seasonal even by Canadian standards with average January lows of around −21 °C and average July highs of 26 °C. Known as the "Gateway to the West", Winnipeg is a railway and transportation hub with a diversified economy. This multicultural city hosts numerous annual festivals, including the Festival du Voyageur, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, and Folklorama. Winnipeg was the first Canadian host of the Pan American Games. It is home to several professional sports franchises, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Canadian football), the Winnipeg Jets (ice hockey), Manitoba Moose (ice hockey), Valour FC (soccer), and the Winnipeg Goldeyes (baseball).
Winnipeg is an economic base and regional centre. It has one of the country's most diversified economies, with major employment in the trade (15.2%), manufacturing (9.8%), educational (7.7%), and health care and social assistance (15.2%) sectors. There were approximately 21,000 employers in the city as of 2012.In 2013, The CIBC Metropolitan Economic Activity Index rated Winnipeg's economy as fourth in a national survey of 25 city economies, behind Toronto, Calgary, and Regina. According to the Conference Board of Canada, Winnipeg was projected to experience a real GDP growth of 2 percent in 2014. Unlike most of Canada, the city experienced a decrease in unemployment in 2013, ending the year at a rate of 5.8 percent. As of 2010, median household income in the city was $72,050.As of January 2014, approximately 416,700 people are employed in Winnipeg and the surrounding area. Some of Winnipeg's largest employers are government and government-funded institutions, including the Province of Manitoba, the City of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba, the Health Sciences Centre, and Manitoba Hydro. Approximately 54,000 people (14% of the work force) are employed in the public sector as of 2008. Large private sector employers include Shaw Communications, Manitoba Telecom Services, Ipsos-Reid, Palliser Furniture, Great-West Life Assurance, Motor Coach Industries, New Flyer Industries, Boeing Canada Technology, StandardAero, Magellan Aerospace, Nygård International, Canad Inns, Canada Goose clothing and Investors Group.The Royal Canadian Mint, established in 1976, produces all circulating coinage in Canada. The plant, in southeastern Winnipeg, also produces coins for many other countries. In 2012, Winnipeg was ranked by KPMG as the least expensive location to do business in western Canada. Like many prairie cities, Winnipeg has a relatively low cost of living. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average house price in Winnipeg was $260,000 as of 2013. As of May 2014, the Consumer Price Index was 125.8 relative to 2002 prices, reflecting consumer costs at the Canadian average.
As of the Canada 2016 Census there were 705,244 people living in Winnipeg proper,[97] with approximately 778,489 living in the Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). Thus, Winnipeg is Manitoba's largest city and Canada's seventh largest city. Furthermore, the city represents 54.9% of the population of the province of Manitoba, the highest population concentration in one city of any province in Canada. Apart from the city of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg CMA includes the rural municipalities of Springfield, St. Clements, Taché, East St. Paul, Macdonald, Ritchot, West St. Paul, Headingley, the Brokenhead 4 reserve, Rosser and St. François Xavier. Statistics Canada's estimate of the Winnipeg CMA population as of 1 July 2017 is 825,713, making it the 7th largest CMA in Canada. As of the 2006 census, 48.3 percent of residents were male and 51.7 percent were female. 24.3 percent were 19 years old or younger, 27.4 percent were between 20 and 30 years old, and 34.0 percent were between 40 and 64 years old. The average age of a Winnipegger in May 2006 was 38.7, compared to an average of 39.5 for Canada as a whole. Between the censuses of 2006 and 2011, Winnipeg's population increased by 4.8 percent, compared to 5.2 percent for Manitoba as a whole. The population density of the city of Winnipeg averaged 1,430 people per km2, compared with 2.2 for Manitoba. Winnipeg has a significant and increasing Aboriginal population, with both the highest percentage of Aboriginal peoples (12.5%) for any major Canadian city, and the highest total number of Aboriginals (86,035) for any single non-reserve municipality. The Aboriginal population grew by 22% between 2001 and 2006, compared to an increase of 3% for the city as a whole; this population tends to be younger and less wealthy than non-Aboriginal residents.Winnipeg also has the highest Métis population in both percentage (6.3%) and numbers (41,005); the growth rate for this population between 2001 and 2006 was 30%. The city has the greatest percentage of Filipino residents (8.7%) of any major Canadian city, although Toronto has more Filipinos by total population. In 2006, Winnipeg ranked seventh of the Canadian cities for percentage of residents of a visible minority.[103][108] As of the 2016 Census, the population was 63.9% European in origin (73.5% of the city was white in 2006), while non-aboriginal visible minorities represent 23.5% (up from 16.3% in 2006).[103][104] The city receives over 10,000 net international immigrants per year.More than a hundred languages are spoken in Winnipeg, of which the most common is English: 99 percent of Winnipeggers are fluent English speakers, 88 percent speak only English, and 0.1 percent speak only French (Canada's other official language). 10 percent speak both English and French, while 1.3 percent speak neither. Other languages spoken as a mother tongue in Winnipeg include Tagalog (5.0%), German (2.5%), and Punjabi and Ukrainian (both 1.4%). Several Aboriginal languages are also spoken, such as Ojibwe (0.3%) and Cree (0.2%). The 2011 National Household Survey reported the religious make-up of Winnipeg as: 63.7% Christian, including 29.7% Catholic, 8.1% United Church, and 4.6% Anglican; 1.7% Muslim; 1.6% Jewish; 1.5% Sikh; 1.0% Hindu; 1.0% Buddhist; 0.3% traditional (aboriginal) spirituality; 0.4% other; and 28.9% no religious affiliation.
By 1911, Winnipeg was Canada's third-largest city.[15] However, the city faced financial difficulty when the Panama Canal opened in 1914.[39] The canal reduced reliance on Canada's rail system for international trade; the increase in shipping traffic helped Vancouver to surpass Winnipeg in both prosperity and population by the end of World War I. Before 1972, Winnipeg was the largest of thirteen cities and towns in a metropolitan area around the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. In 1960 the Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg was established to co-ordinate service delivery in the metropolitan region.[36] A consolidated metropolitan "unicity" government incorporating Winnipeg and its surrounding municipalities was established on 27 July 1971, taking effect in 1972.[52] The City of Winnipeg Act incorporated the current city.[15] In 2003 the City of Winnipeg Act was repealed and replaced with the City of Winnipeg Charter.Winnipeg experienced a severe economic downturn in advance of the early 1980s recession, during which the city incurred closures of prominent businesses, including the Winnipeg Tribune, as well as the Swift's and Canada Packers meat packing plants.[53] In 1981, Winnipeg was one of the first cities in Canada to sign a tripartite agreement with the provincial and federal governments to redevelop its downtown area,[54] and the three levels of government contributed over $271 million to its development.[55] In 1989, the reclamation and redevelopment of the CNR rail yards turned The Forks into Winnipeg's most popular tourist attraction.[13][15] The city was threatened by the 1997 Red River flood as well as further floods in 2009 and 2011,[56] in each of these floods, the Red River Floodway was used to safely protect the city.