Councillors consider expanding Little Mountain Park off-leash area

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This article was published 12/01/2015 (4155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There appears to be support among some members of council to have Little Mountain Park officially designated as an off-leash dog park.

Members of the protection and community services committee endorsed an administrative recommendation to have the park’s status included in a pending master plan review for off-leash dog parks.

Couns. Matt Allard and Jeff Browaty said it appears to make sense to designate the entire park, which is located just outside the city boundaries in the RM of Rosser, as an off-leash site.

“There is one person who wants to use the park for every 100 people who want to bring their dogs,” Browaty (North Kildonan) said. “I’m sorry, the dogs win every time.”

Allard (St. Boniface) said Winnipeg suffers from a scarcity of off-leash sites. In comparison, he said, Calgary has ten times the amount of park acreage set aside as off-leash space.

The City of Winnipeg has operated a quarry at the park site since the late 1800s and has owned the entire park since 1965. But because it’s located outside the city boundaries, it’s not in a ward and no councillor is responsible for it.

City hall has designated Little Mountain Park as one of three regional dog parks, the other two being sections of Kil-Cona and Maple Grove parks. Officially, only a small portion of the 160-acre park is designated as an off-leash park.

Dog owners stepped up lobbying efforts in the past year to have more park space set aside as off-leash areas. The groups were also active in the civic election campaign, where they assessed the suitability of candidates based on their support for off-leash sites.

The administration recommends that the off-leash area be expanded to the picnic area adjacent to the existing off-leash zone but to prohibit off-leash from the majority of the forested areas of the park.

Coun. Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan) expressed caution, saying school groups visit the park and there would be safety concern if dogs are allowed to run loose throughout the entire site. Schreyer noted that a bylaw requires dog owners be able to see their dogs at all times when off leash, but that’s not possible on the winding trails of the forest area.

Jordan Lobe, vice-president of the Little Mountain Park dog club, said he expects a Master Plan on off-leash parks will ultimately recommend the entire park be designated as an off-leash site, so council should go that route now.

Lobe said that if the entire park is designated for off-leash use, then there’d be no costs associated with fencing off areas.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca