Wyatt accused of derailing Hi Neighbour fest

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This article was published 10/06/2015 (4130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THIS year’s Transcona Hi Neighbour festival was anything but neighbourly.

Major sponsors such as the Transcona BIZ and City of Winnipeg pulled out and the Saturday fireworks display was cancelled after a community group protested its location.

Chad Panting, the treasurer of the festival’s board, alleges the bad luck that shrouded the three-day festival wasn’t a coincidence.

“The one common connection between everything, and there is an incredible amount of things, there is some sort of misconduct going on,” Panting said.

“And as a board, we feel it was Russ (Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt).”

Last month, the Free Press reported several sponsors had dropped out of the festival after concerns were raised over charges laid against Hi Neighbour Festival board chairman Ray Ulasy.

Last year, Ulasy was charged with two counts of offering to traffic firearms. None of the allegations has been proven in court and Ulasy is presumed innocent.

Ulasy ran against Wyatt in the last municipal election.

Transcona MLA Darryl Reid said he was aware the Transcona councillor had been “applying some influence” to decisions regarding the festival.

“There were forces that I am aware of that were trying to undermine the festival, which include the councillor,” said Reid.

“The festival belongs to the community, it doesn’t belong to the councillor and the community decided this festival was, as it was last year, a huge success.”

Earlier this year, Buhler Recreation Park opted not to sponsor the festival citing issues with the festival’s governance and Ulasy, leaving organizers to find a new venue to host the fireworks display.

The beleaguered festival found a new location, Harbour View Park, which is steps away from the dog park in Kilcona Park. That location upset Donna Henry, president of the dog park. She publicly raised concerns over the safety of the dogs during the show, citing the noise fireworks would make.

Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries had committed to funding the fireworks, and according to a spokeswoman for the Crown corporation, told the board they couldn’t sponsor the fireworks at that location given the opposition.

The board was unable to find a new location and cancelled the fireworks.

“If you just follow the fireworks train, someone did not want the fireworks to happen and then you go to Harbour View and now all of the sudden it is dogs,” Panting said.

Wyatt fired back at the allegations. “I don’t think the board should be pointing fingers. They should be more or less be looking at themselves, because in the last six months they have lost half a dozen board members,” Wyatt said.

Any decision to sponsor or not sponsor the festival would be based on the facts at hand, Wyatt said.

“…The chairman (Ulasy) should have done the right thing and stepped aside until that matter (criminal charges) is cleared up and I think that is at the heart of it,” Wyatt said.

Panting said he is puzzled as to the motive behind why Wyatt, or other members of the Transcona community, might have attempted to thwart the festival’s success.

“It is a family festival. Who gives a crap who is sitting in an old room at 8 o’clock at night deciding which vendors and which floats and which parade?” Panting said. “The co-ordination was amongst several people and I don’t know what the gain would have been to destroy the festival.”

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca