Another water park for Winnipeg!

As expected, EPC approved the $7 million grant for an Alberta developer of road side inns to build a half-assed water park at the historic Forks site.

SAME DAY: Global Winnipeg comes out with this: Water park also planned for IKEA site in Winnipeg

It comes as no surprise to local developer Hart Mallin. “As it makes sense at West Edmonton Mall or Mall of America or anywhere else across North America where you have significant shopping installation you want some water facility,” Mallin told Global News Wednesday.

No surprise indeed. In fact some know-it-all blogger named Cheren-something wrote this back in March of 2009:

One last thing: I am making the call: You will see a water park on this site. Ledo's big waterpark at Polo Park is dead. This is where the big park is going to go: at the Ikea Centre CanadInn.

Little Gray Bird also wrote this last Sunday:

Let a private company buy some land out by the new Ikea and build a water park there on their own.

It was probably in the cards the whole time, but the announcement or leak was delayed until the uncertainty of Sam's plan was cleared up. Now that the IKEA developer knows that the water park at the Forks will be small and unlikely to provide competition for their plan, they are comfortable coming forward with it.

Ironically, Sam's overwhelming desire to draw a "world class" water park to Winnipeg probably threatened or delayed that very thing.