Amazon says they are excited to have a new location in Manitoba. 

Already familiar with Winnipeg thanks to its movie-making ThinkBox web services, located in the Forks, Amazon is expanding its Winnipeg reach.

Economic Development and Training Minister Ralph Eichler and Amazon's regional director Tushar Kumar says they are excited about their partnership.

“We are excited to continue our growth in Canada with our first Manitoba delivery station in Winnipeg,” Tushar Kumar, regional director, Amazon last-mile logistics operations for Amazon Canada says.

Northeast of Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport in Inkster Industrial Park, a 113,000-sq.-ft. the delivery station is planned to open in 2021.

Amazon says this could create hundreds of jobs.

“This new delivery station will allow us to provide fast and efficient delivery for customers, and provide hundreds of job opportunities for the talented local workforce.”

The province says the new facility will create hundreds of direct and indirect full-time and part-time jobs.

“The Manitoba government has worked hard to create a good business environment where companies want to grow and create jobs,” Eichler says. “Manitoba is a great place to do business and we thank Amazon for its investment and for showing confidence in our economy.”

The new jobs include parcel sorting, management and third-party delivery services. Amazon says the delivery station will receive and sort parcels from other distribution centres, coordinating deliveries to homes and businesses in the Winnipeg area through local service providers.

"The delivery station will power Amazon’s last-mile capabilities to speed up deliveries for customers in the Winnipeg metro region and enable Amazon logistics to supplement the capacity and flexibility of its delivery capabilities," Kumar says. "Delivery stations also offer Manitoba entrepreneurs the opportunity to build their own business delivering Amazon packages, as well as independent contractors the flexibility to be their own boss and create their own schedule delivering for Amazon Flex."

Eichler says the new site's job creation is "particularly welcome" as Manitobans recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.