Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Province unveils controversial wilderness camp
$10-M Whiteshell youth complex planned after year of closed-door discussions
Conservation Minister Stan Struthers outlines the details of a children's camp in the Whiteshell. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
After one year of behind-the-scenes discussion, the Manitoba government and the Tim Horton Children's Foundation outlined plans Friday to build a controversial $10-million year-round camp complex near Meditation Lake in the Whiteshell.
The year-round camp will be open by 2011 and be used primarily to give underprivileged kids a chance at summer camp and give others a chance at exploring a piece of the province that has for the most part only been open to canoeists and backcountry hikers.
Related Items
Conservation Minister Stan Struthers and foundation vice-president David Newnham said before work begins on building the camp -- a road and hydro service have to first be extended -- officials will meet with the public at two open houses. They will be held the evening of April 30 at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg and the afternoon of May 2 at the Pinewood Lodge at Dorothy Lake. First Nations people will also be consulted.
Struthers said the province has been working with The Tim Horton Children's Foundation for the past year to choose an appropriate site.
"We have 110,000 lakes in this province and some of them would clearly not be environmentally suitable," Struthers said. "We took our time to make sure that we found a lake that really worked from the perspective of the foundation but also one that allowed us to move forward in a balanced way to protect the environment."
The proposal has come under fire from cottagers and an environmental group because of the province's refusal to develop a management plan for its protected areas and because of the secret nature of the talks to date.
"We don't have to be putting roads into areas that don't have roads," said Eric Reder, Manitoba campaign director of the national wilderness protection group, the Wilderness Committee.
Reder also said the proposed camp is near the Bannock Point petroforms, rock figures laid out on bedrock in the forms of turtles, snakes and humans. It's believed First Nations people left the designs generations ago and that the area is still a ceremonial site for aboriginal people.
Struthers said the camp development fits with the province's management plan of its parks as it will open up an area for wilderness recreation in a controlled way. There are no plans for cottage development.
He also used Friday's event to mention the province has banned commercial logging in all but one provincial park -- Duck Mountain.
Newnham said the site near Meditation Lake -- it will accommodate 260 youth during the summer -- was chosen because it's close enough to the city but still in a wilderness area. Programming during summer months will be aimed at teaching outdoor skills to underprivileged kids 9 to 12 and wilderness and leadership skills to older youth. School or other groups will have access to the camp during the off-season. Would-be campers will apply through Tim Hortons franchises.
He also said the foundation will use the camp as a base to run wilderness "leave-no-trace" canoe trips.
The foundation operates six other camps for disadvantaged youth; five in Canada and one in the U.S. Information of the foundation is at www.timhortons.com/ca/en/goodwill/childrens_about.html
The Whiteshell camp would include several year-round buildings, Newnham said, consisting of two sleeping quarters that would accommodate 65 of the youth, a dining hall, a health and wellness unit, a creative arts centre and a maintenance building.
Struthers and Newnham said the camp will have to meet provincial guidelines for waste-water treatment.
"We won't let anyone off lightly when it comes to treatment of sewage," Struthers said.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 4, 2009 A4
- Rate this
-
-
We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.
You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.
Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.
The comment period for this story has ended.
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Local
-
Working in Winnipeg
A close-up look at the jobs people do and why they do them
-
Helping Haiti
Where to make donations
-
Open Secrets
Red River students mine government data banks
-
Ski with WFP
Register here to ski Asessippi with the Winnipeg Free Press
-
Random Acts of Kindness
Your encounters with goodness
Poll
Most Popular
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Murder charges against top CFB Trenton officer leave military community reeling
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Should have been listening, Tiger
- No support for Winnipeg's 'Homeless Hero' in days before attack: stepdaughter
- Checking out sex show all part of journalist's job
- Body found in Delta airplane wheel well after arriving in Tokyo from New York
- Larger garbage carts may become available
- Footprints in snow lead to stolen goods
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Storm warning issued
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- City streets very slippery; several vehicles involved in crashes
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- Extended family pulls together
- Two dead after crash on Bishop Grandin
- Water pressure drop caused by power outage: city
- Avoid Perimeter: RCMP
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Winter storm warnings issued for Winnipeg, southern Manitoba
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Cheap Vancouver rentals, if tiny's OK
- Larger garbage carts may become available
- Take one downtown, fill it with people
- No support for Winnipeg's 'Homeless Hero' in days before attack: stepdaughter
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Got more trash? It'll cost you
- MPI playing politics with poll question: Tories
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Murder charges against top CFB Trenton officer leave military community reeling
- Bad cocaine results in grave illness, hospitalization
- Prominence proving costly to Hall: friend
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Sick days spike during blizzard
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- Shielding buyers, or 'cash grab'?
- Bad cocaine results in grave illness, hospitalization
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- Girl not a bully, shouldn't have been suspended, says mom
- Arrest tape kills auto-theft case
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Don't dock students for missing deadlines: NDP
- Alleged mobsters seek to stay
- RCMP investigating after video shows police beating suspect
- U.S. fighter slams Canada's 'Third World' health system
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Drunk cop crashes motorbike, gets fined
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- Iran playing its hand
- Checking out sex show all part of journalist's job
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- First female boss for Destination Winnipeg
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Steamy weekend
- Real-estate association's rules challenged by federal competition watchdog
- Footprints in snow lead to stolen goods
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- A super-lab to fight superbugs
- Hutterite biography to debut despite legal chill
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- 'Tough guys' wanted as film extras
- Nylons still smooth as silk
- Bath & Body Works coming to St. Vital
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- Winnipeg desserts are a piece of cake
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- VIDEO: A winter wonderland?
- Harper really is dangerous
PREVIOUS
2 Comments
Posted by: ACR99
April 4, 2009 at 2:03 PM
One could virtually guarantee that if this proposed camp were for middle and upper class kids there would be absolutely no problem. Way to go Timmies!!! Give kids who need camp a chance to grow up doing something that "regular" kids get to do. Hopefully my kids will qualify in the future.
Posted by: Guy_Smiley
April 4, 2009 at 12:57 PM
More lies from the MiniCon Struthers. The road has already been punched in to the wilderness, yet the public consultations have yet to begin. Why has the province been working in secrecy with a large American corporation on developing our public wilderness areas for their private use?