Kinew pledges $1M for Brandon community centre
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/08/2023 (799 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BRANDON — NDP Leader Wab Kinew took his election campaign outside of Winnipeg Sunday, promising his party would make a “win-win” investment to help rebuild a community centre in the southwestern city.
Flanked by several centre board members and people who live in the neighbourhood, Kinew said that, if elected, his party would invest up to $1 million to rebuild the Park Community Centre, including space for a day care.
“Whenever I come to Brandon, I hear a lot about child care,” Kinew said. “It seemed like there was a real win-win opportunity here to both support the needed community initiative, and to expand the childcare spaces available to meet the needs of families.
Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew promised an investment of $1 million to rebuild the Park Community Centre in Brandon. (Michele McDougall/The Brandon Sun)
“We’ll commit $1 million towards a cost-shared project, working not just with the municipal leadership, but here with the community leadership to ensure that we can get a new facility off the ground.”
In the past few years, Brandon city council has considered various options for Park Community Centre, including demolishing it, replacing it with a greenspace, repairing the existing space or rebuilding altogether.
But in 2022, city staff said repairs would not be cost-effective, citing an engineering study.
In February, city staff recommended that council reject three demolition and construction bids, after the lowest bid came in at $300,000 more than had been allocated in this year’s budget for the project.
Council promised not to demolish the centre before it issued a new request for proposals that would give it more control over design of a new centre and include an estimate of cost before it went out for bidding.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of August, the community centre was unsuccessful in its application for funding from Manitoba’s Arts, Culture and Sport in Community Fund.
The board’s vision for a new community centre includes rental space for 120 people, a commercial kitchen, as well as the day care said Eldon Schmitz, a Park Community Centre board member who has “stayed in the fight for five years trying to get the centre rebuilt.”
“It has to be rebuilt, there’s no way around it,” Schmitz said. “I’m the rental co-ordinator and it’s rented out all the time, even with our limit of 40 people.”
“So, the best thing that can happen is that it gets rebuilt with a commercial kitchen, with indoor and outdoor concerts planned for the future. It’s really an arts and cultural place, it’s not really a recreational place, so we’re going ahead with that.”
Weighing in as NDP candidate for Brandon East, Glen Simard accused current Progressive Conservative MLA Len Isleifson of failing to deliver.
“He (Isleifson) couldn’t get the Park Community Centre the funding it needs but I will,” Simard said. “I care about Brandon East families, and alongside Wab Kinew I will work hard to ensure that Brandon families have better health care and a thriving community.”
In an emailed statement to the Sun, Isleifson said he will continue to advocate and work towards a solution for the Park Community Centre.
“I’m actively working with the mayor and council on solutions for Park Community Centre with hopes, of course, of including a childcare facility.
“Community centres are of upmost importance to myself and the PC team, hence our $100-million investment in Arts, Culture and Sport in our communities,” Isleifson stated.
On Saturday, the NDP officially nominated a candidate in Brandon West.
Retired United Church minister and family therapist Quentin Robinson was acclaimed the party’s representative.
The Ontario-born former farmer first announced he was seeking the nomination last month.
Robinson will now go up against former Brandon Police Service chief Wayne Balcaen, who retired from his position early to run for the governing Progressive Conservatives, and retired teacher Bill Marsh, who is running for the Green Party of Manitoba. The Manitoba Liberals have yet to nominate a candidate for the constituency.
Incumbent Tory MLA Reg Helwer, a former cabinet minister, announced early this year that he would not seek a fourth term after representing the constituency in the legislature since 2011.
— Brandon Sun
