Saskatchewan-Manitoba

Eight major economic forecasters are predicting that Saskatchewan will have the fastest-growing economy in Canada in 2011. Saskatchewan's economy is expected to increase by an average of 3.7 per cent next year, well ahead of the 2.

Cut red tape "It should be easy to start a business here. We need to up our game in this area," she said.

With no rent controls, a 1 per cent vacancy rate and rising rents, Saskatchewan's capital is emerging as a dream market for multi-family investors.

Labour demand is expected to remain reasonably firm through this year, resulting in an average annual employment gain of 1.3 per cent into 2011.

The Saskatchewan government is no longer spending more money than it takes into provincial coffers.

Weyerhaeuser Co. Ltd. has reopened its oriented strand board plant in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, that it had closed in July of 2008, leaving 140 people without jobs.

Cameco, the Saskatoon-based uranium producer, has signed a second deal within a year to supply millions of pounds of uranium concentrate to China.

Ideal location The area appears to be an ideal location for green-field projects.

Winnipeg's Exchange District is growing up into a full-fledged neighbourhood. The area has long been the home of the city's arts and cultural communities but it has never been able to attract more than the diehards to live there.

Arborg, a town of 1,617 people about an hour's drive north of Winnipeg, is on the hunt for investment dollars as immigrant workers continue to arrive in the community.