Water-park vote delayed

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This article was published 25/04/2012 (4907 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg city council wants more specifics on a hotel and water-park complex proposed for The Forks before it votes to spend $7 million to subsidize the facility.

Wednesday morning, council was set to vote on a plan to sell a city-owned surface parking lot known as Parcel Four to Alberta hotel chain Canalta, which wanted to build a 50,000-square-foot water park, 250-room hotel and parkade at the southwest corner of Waterfront Drive and William Stephenson Way.

The proposed plan called for Winnipeg to sell the land for $6 million and give Canalta a $7-million grant in exchange for $700,000 worth of admission credits for low-income families for the next 25 years.

Since the proposal was unveiled on April 11, city councillors were deluged with calls, emails, letters and social-media messages from constituents, most of them unhappy about the plan.

That led St. Boniface Coun. Dan Vandal – who voted in favour of the proposal at executive policy committee last week – to author a motion to defer the vote for 70 days and insist Canalta return with detailed building designs, a site plan, a completed public-access agreement and a commitment to engage in consultations with the public, The Forks and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Old Kildonan Coun. Devi Sharma, who at one point this week appeared to hold the deciding vote on city council, seconded Vandal’s motion.

The St. Boniface councillor explained his change of heart by noting council has not received enough information from Canalta. Other councillors, including EPC members Scott Fielding (St. James-Brooklands) and Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), expressed concerns about the plan, including the size of the proposed water park, the location at The Forks and the use of subsidy to spark development at a high-value plot of city land that was not made available to other developers.

Vandal’s motion was approved by a vote of 10-5. He and Sharma were supported by Fielding, Browaty, Ross Eadie (Mynarski), Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge), Brian Mayes (St. Vital), John Orlikow (River Heights), Harvey Smith (Daniel McIntyre) and Thomas Steen (Elmwood).

Voting against the delay were Couns. Justin Swandel (St. Norbert), Paula Havixbeck (Charleswood-Tuxedo), Russ Wyatt (Transcona), Grant Nordman (St. Charles) and Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas). Nordman and Pagtakhan wanted to kill the Canalta plan outright, while Swandel, Havixbeck and Wyatt were concerned a delay would jeopardize the deal.

“The proponent may just walk. That’s a real possibility,” Wyatt said.

Havixbeck went further, declaring she believes the deal is dead because Canalta will not want to spend $200,000 on plans and consultations that may yet be rejected.

The water park proposal will now be referred back to council’s downtown development committee for further review.

At the beginning of the meeting, Swandel attempted to amend council’s rules to have the proposal delayed without amendment. But his effort failed, 4-11.

That allowed the debate to occur and for delegates such as Colin Craig of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and David Sauer of the Winnipeg Labour Council to address council. Craig and Sauer noted it was unusual for the right-wing federation and left-wing council to be united in opposition against the same issue.

Mayor Sam Katz recused himself from voting on the proposed deal since he is the majority owner of the Winnipeg Goldeyes, which play at Shaw Park, just north of Parcel Four.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca