Ottawa adds $31M to $65-M commitment for transformation of former Bay store into Indigenous cultural, housing hub

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This article was published 24/05/2024 (472 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The gutted first floor of what used to be the Hudson’s Bay Company’s flagship store features renderings of the massive building’s future as an Indigenous housing and cultural hub in the heart of downtown.

On Friday morning, there was plenty of excitement in the space, fuelled by a palpable feeling of opportunity, a word that came up often during the announcement of $31 million in federal funds for the ambitious project named Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn, which means “it is visible” in Ojibwe.

First Nations leadership and elders joined representatives from all three levels of government to celebrate the commitment, an addition to the $65 million previously pledged by Ottawa.

“Winnipeg is Canada’s most vital city,” MP Dan Vandal said while construction work continued on the upper floors of the 98-year-old structure.

The Southern Chiefs’ Organization, which is behind the project, will receive $25 million from Infrastructure Canada and $6 million from Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan), for which Vandal is responsible.

The additional funds will go toward structural upgrades to the building, the creation of a public tourist space on the main floor and Miikahnah Connect — an Indigenous workforce hiring app.

There was much talk of opportunities to foster reconciliation, to encourage Indigenous entrepreneurship and hiring a majority First Nations workforce to bring the artist renderings to life.

SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said approximately 8,000 hours of work have gone into the project since it was announced in 2022 with HBC’s gift to the organization as an act of reconciliation.

Daniels said SCO had shouldered the costs while waiting for promised government funding.

About 90 per cent of the preliminary demolition has been done by First Nations workers, he said.

“We have multiple partners throughout the construction industry, not just here in Winnipeg, but throughout Canada, wanting to hire First Nations citizens to work on their projects, and they’ve been reaching out to us,” he said. “That’s the impact that this work is having.”

The project’s plans include 300 affordable housing units, a child-care facility, a museum and gallery, a wellness centre that will focus on Indigenous methods of healing, a memorial centre for residential school survivors and a governance space for the chiefs of Manitoba’s southern First Nations.

Daniels noted SCO celebrated its 25th birthday Thursday.

“This is a heavy, heavy project for an organization as young as 25 years… I think SCO is punching above its weight class,” he said.

While the original cost of the project was expected to be $130 million, the budget had grown to about $200 million late last year. Daniels said that estimate has not changed since.

Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn is expected to be completed in 2026.

“Our government is absolutely committed to the downtown,” Vandal said. “We know that cities are judged by downtowns, and we know that downtown housing is absolutely critical to a safer, more vibrant Winnipeg.”

The province has put up $35 million — $25 million for historic preservation and $10 million for housing — and the city has said it will offer tax incentives.

Manitoba Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said the building will address a rapidly growing need.

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“This is going to help so much of our people, and housing is such a social determinant of how well people do,” she said.

Manitoba Housing’s wait list for subsidized housing had 6,079 applicants as of this week, up from 5,822 on Jan. 1.

Mayor Scott Gillingham described the Bay building and the former Bank of Montreal building at Portage and Main — both now owned by Indigenous leadership — as gateways into downtown.

“I think that’s really, really significant, and very exciting,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.