Sunday, 5 April 2009

Upper Fort Garry: Year 1 Progress Report

Well, it's been over a year now since the "Friends" of Upper Fort Garry stuck a knife in the gut of downtown Winnipeg by killing a promising and much needed apartment development in order to build a world class money pit interpretive centre. So how's it going? Let's check out the website: http://www.upperfortgarry.com

Gee, I don't think it's been updated. I guess their work on this project "for all Manitobans and visitors" doesn't warrant informing those people whom this project is ostensibly supposed to benefit.

So what do we have to go on? A Free Press report that the group arranged the purchase of the adjacent Grain Exchange curling rink. Okay. Bartley was also kind enough to give us an update back in December:
the group claimed to have raised $10.1 million toward the construction of the heritage park. Yet behind the scenes, the Friends continued to wrangle with the city, which wanted to know precisely how much money had actually been raised, as opposed to merely pledged.

City lawyers also asked the Friends to name as many donors as possible, disclose any conditions placed on the donations and also indicate how much of the park-building money has been donated as a lump-sum payment and how much will be donated over time.

There's not much else out there though. What's the status of these donations? Don't you think it's time we got a comprehensive update from the city? Don't you think it's time the Friends updated their web site? Unless you give us an update on the situation, all we citizens have to go on is what we see: the empty parking at the center of this affair, and that parking lot looks pretty much the same as it did this time last year ('cept with a little more snow).

5 comments:

  1. It'll probably stay dead for another year.
    --------------------------------

    Re: 100 Main St.
    Council Minutes - September 24, 2008

    Councillor Nordman referenced Council's discussions about six months ago on Upper Fort Garry, 100 Main Street, and asked if there was any information to share as to how the Friends of
    Upper Fort Garry are proceeding with their accumulation of land and the activity on that
    property.

    His Worship recalled that the City of Winnipeg had an agreement with the private sector. The
    private sector came forward and they were prepared to give a two year extension to the Friends
    of Upper Fort Garry in order for them to have more time to accomplish their goal.
    He advised that there have been conversations with the Friends of Upper Fort Garry over the summer and that three key criteria were being looked at: 1) a new business plan; 2) acquisition of the Grain Exchange Curling Club; and 3) funding.

    His Worship advised that a new business plan was recently received as well as documentation
    outlining the plan to acquire the Grain Exchange Curling Club; and that they are still waiting for
    an update on the financial aspect.

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  2. No mention in council since September though. We probably won't hear anything until next March, which is a little bit rude since they spent so much energy appealing to the public when this debate was going on. Now that the Friends got what they want they shut us out. We don't matter any more.

    I sent a note to City Hall to see if they can give me any new info.

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  3. Thanks for reminding me. I intended to write an update story, but was distracted by IKEA/flood/stadium/shiny piece of duct tape on a string.

    bart

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  4. Anytime ... Look forward to seeing the story.

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  5. It was mentioned at the Heritage Winnipeg fund raising luncheon that an announcement from tffg was imminent. The speaker went to the trouble of stating this several times. Take it for what it's worth, haven't heard anything since.

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