Standing at the intersection of Winnipeg’s Portage and Main, there’s no getting away from signs of how important the city’s commodity exchange has been for more than a century.
The first standalone Grain Exchange building, built in 1892, is now the centerpiece of a famous faade restoration that fronts the new Red River College campus.
A few blocks away stands the vast bulk of the second Grain Exchange building – once the largest office building in the British Empire.
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And at Portage and Main is a metallic monolith named the Commodity Exchange Tower, the home of the exchange since the 1980s.
Even the name of the nationally protected heritage zone north of Portage and Main tells the tale: The Exchange District.
But the commodity exchange has been quietly moving out of the area.
“I guess after they closed the floor, it was inevitable,” said one long-time commodity exchange floor trader, when asked about the move of the ICE Futures Canada exchange.
The exchange has slowly faded from public consciousness over the course of most of a century, from a time before the First World War when it was the source of much of the city’s wealth, growth and excitement, to today when it has become an online only exchange. Few outside the grain industry realize it exists.
The exchange is moving to a modest building on a busy road that offers cheaper rent and easier access for employees.
Jim Blanchard, the historian who wrote the book Winnipeg 1912, has noticed its lower profile.
“What is really sad is that Winnipeggers don’t really know that the exchange was such a major institution at one time. It’s another piece of our history that people don’t remember,” said Blanchard.
Over the years, Portage and Main has also seen the grain industry shrink in relative importance.
There are major grain trade players in the area, such as the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian International Grains Institute, the Canadian Grain Commission, dozens of agriculture industry organizations and associations and a number of grain company head offices.
But Portage and Main is a lot less “grainy” than it used to be.
In recent years, corporate consolidation has swallowed companies that had Portage and Main head offices, with Manitoba Pool Elevators, United Grain Growers and Agricore all becoming defunct names in the last 15 years. Viterra keeps only a portion of its head office in Winnipeg.
The Richardson Building still houses the James Richardson International empire, which has grown in recent years, but the area also contains buildings named for once-dominant companies that are now just memories, such as the Lake of the Woods Milling Company.
And some of the institutional stalwarts like CIGI, the CGC, Agriculture Canada and the CWB may move staff and functions to the University of Manitoba.
Ever since the commodity exchange closed its trading floor and went electronic in 2004, there has been no need for centrally located offices in an expensive building.
There is little reason for traders or other users of the ICE Futures Canada exchange to visit the marketplace, since its real existence is in the digital world.
In practical terms, the exchange remains in Winnipeg and still provides its vital role to the canola industry.
But to many, the move of the exchange brings up melancholy memories of times when the grain industry was a driving force of Winnipeg.
“Having the exchange here, with the knowledge that in certain years it did more business than the Chicago or Minneapolis exchanges, made the city world class in one area,” said Blanchard.
“It’s sort of like having an NHL team. The exchange connected us to the great world outside.”
The exchange no longer has Winnipeg in its name, but it is likely more connected to the world than ever before because of the global network of electronic connections. In that way, the exchange continues to connect Winnipeg to the world.
But for Portage and Main, exchange could become merely a heritage word on office buildings and a fading memory for aging grain industry workers.
