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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Dream of saving old terminal won't fly

Aviation museum eyes move to site of former airport building

By: Aldo Santin

Posted: 01/24/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Enlarge Image

The museum is starting a capital campaign to raise money to build a new museum on the site of the old airport terminal.

HERITAGE Winnipeg has given up its campaign to save the city's old airport terminal from demolition.

Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg, said the effort was doomed from the start because it lacked the support of anyone or any authority willing to champion the effort.

Enlarge Image

A Lockheed Electra 10A, along with several other aircraft, are on display in the current Western Canada Aviation Museum. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

"We couldn't persuade anyone," Tugwell said.

The admission from Heritage Winnipeg comes as the Western Canadian Aviation Museum announces its capital campaign for a new museum facility on the site of the old terminal building.

The aviation museum is holding a news conference this morning, where it will introduce city businessmen Art Mauro and Ross Robinson as co-chairmen of the capital campaign.

Tugwell said the save-the-terminal campaign needed the support of the aviation museum, which at one time was considering becoming the main tenant of a renovated terminal building but subsequently withdrew its involvement in favour of the construction of a new facility on the terminal site.

The Winnipeg Airports Authority said there were no viable groups interested in using the old terminal building, which it plans to demolish and redevelop.

The aviation museum's news conference is set for 11:30 a.m. today at the Calm Air hangar on Morberg Way. Speakers will include Steve Ashton, Manitoba's minister of transportation and infrastructure, Barry Rempel, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Airports Authority, and Mauro and Robinson.

Robinson is head of B.A. Robinson, the Winni peg-based firm that sells lighting, electrical, heating and plumbing products.

Mauro is a city businessman and financier who sits on the boards of several organizations. He is the former CEO and chairman of Investors Group, chairman emeritus of the Winnipeg Airports Authority, former chancellor of the University of Manitoba and current chancellor of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, where he was born, and founder of the Centre for Peace and Justice at the University of Manitoba.

Tugwell said the old terminal building, opened in 1964, was a key part of Winnipeg's architectural and social history, but Heritage Winnipeg was unable to convince any of the key players to save it, including the federal government, the airports authority and the aviation museum, and the public didn't care.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 24, 2012 B1

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