page_title: Selkirk, Manitoba
section_title: Economy and tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Selkirk, Manitoba / Economy and tourism
caption_attribution_description: English: (Museum Ship) MS Keenora
context_page_description: Selkirk is a city in the western Canadian province of Manitoba, located on the Red River about 22 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital Winnipeg. It has a population of 10,278 as of the 2016 census.
  The mainstays of the local economy are tourism, a steel mill, and a major psychiatric hospital. A vertical lift bridge over the Red River connects Selkirk with the smaller town of East Selkirk. The city is connected to Winnipeg via Highway 9 and is served by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
  The city was named in honour of Scotsman Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, who obtained the grant to establish a colony in the Red River area in 1813.
context_section_description: The Selkirk Mental Health Centre, the largest mental health facility in the province, is a major employer in the city. The Centre's surroundings are a park-like campus on the outskirts of the city.
  Gerdau, owned by Gerdau S.A. of Porto Alegre, Brazil, operates a steel minimill in Selkirk. This steel mill (known locally as MRM or "The Manitoba Rolling Mills") is also a major employer.
  Selkirk is advertised as the Catfish Capital of the World, due to the large amounts of catfish in the nearby Red River. This nickname was part of an advertising campaign to entice American anglers, who travel to Manitoba to fish for trophy-sized catfish.  Selkirk is also home to Chuck the Channel Cat, a fiberglass representation of a catfish that measures 25 feet (7.6 m)  long. The name Chuck was chosen to honour local sport fisherman Chuck Norquay, who drowned while doing what he loved best — fishing in the Red River. After Chuck was built in 1986, the town council decided to place Chuck in front of Smitty's Restaurant on Main Street.
  The Marine Museum of Manitoba, a collection of historical marine artifacts of Lake Winnipeg and the Red River area, is located in Selkirk. Selkirk is also the site of a Canadian Coast Guard base.
  The Selkirk Fair and Rodeo is held annually to celebrate the area's agricultural history. It celebrated its 130th anniversary in 2008.
  Selkirk has three community newspapers: The Interlake Enterprise, The Selkirk Record, and The Selkirk Journal.
  Amphibex excavator icebreakers were at work breaking up ice flows on the Red River in 2009.  Ice breakers and backhoes were to be strategically placed along the Red River Floodway, which might have needed to be opened before the ice was fully melted.  Officials examined past ice jams and provided contingency plans if the Floodway jammed upstream of bridges or on tight corners.
caption: The Keenora in the Manitoba Marine Museum.
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