Councillor seeks plan for former hockey arena

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This article was published 26/06/2023 (853 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg city councillor is seeking to have a local non-profit turn a former hockey arena into a year-round, indoor farmers market.

The East Kildonan-Transcona community committee has recommended the property and development committee direct the public service to pull back the classification of the decommissioned Roland Michener Arena (1121 Wabasha St.) as surplus land, then study how feasible it would be to make it a market space.

The initial plan would cost $80,000.

Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona) said the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare issues of food security in Winnipeg, driving him to put forward the motion.

“Much of our fresh food comes from south of the border, you look in our grocery stores, you only have to work at where it’s grown,” Wyatt said.

“When the next pandemic comes, and if it’s more severe and we’re not able to get a vaccine or what have you, the Americans will not hesitate to shut the border down to keep fresh food south of the border if they need to.”

He said the municipal government should lead on a local food security strategy.

The city’s role in such a venture — after a potential study, business plans and renovations — would be to sign a $1-a-year lease with a non-profit, possibly made up of permanent vendors, that would manage the operation and property, Wyatt said.

Such a market space should be modelled on those common to parts of Europe, focused on basic grocery products sold direct-to-consumer rather than focused on specialty products, he said.

“You can go to western European countries and you’ll see community farmers markets, well-organized, with everything, and when I say a farmers market, I don’t mean what we’re familiar with here, I mean where you go and see fresh cheese, fresh dairy products, fresh meat products, fruits and vegetables… really an alternative to a Sobeys or a Safeway,” Wyatt said.

“We can’t trust the big corporates. Right now, food is in the hands of about two dozen companies and it’s shrinking every year. The supply chain system works great when there’s no crisis — the minute there’s a crisis, the whole thing falls apart.”

The property and development committee is to vote on the feasibility plan Tuesday.

Officially opened in 1971, Roland Michener Arena was decommissioned in 2015, and several attempts by the city to sell the property have been unsuccessful.

“There’s issues there — we may have to deal with asbestos, we may have to deal with Freon from the ice plant — but I believe the bones of the building are good, the structure, the roof, the walls. There will have to be a major conversion, but it’s an existing structure we can work with to reduce our overall capital cost to build an indoor farmers market,” said Wyatt.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera