Province won’t chip in to restore Winnipeg archives

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This article was published 11/02/2025 (240 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg is on its own to restore a vacant heritage building to house its archives.

A report, prepared for next week’s civic executive policy committee meeting, details that while the province will fund various capital projects, including an earlier announced $30 million contribution to the north end sewage plant upgrade, there’s nothing to renovate the former Carnegie Library at 380 William Ave., so the city will have to borrow all of the money needed.

Last month, the city was told the costs had ballooned by $6.6 million to $12.7 million.

The report says the province won’t help to pay for the renovation, so the hit on the city’s annual budget, to repay the loan, will be $1.048 million this year, $2.6 million in 2026, $3 million in 2027, and $1.7 million in 2028.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said Tuesday “the additional operating costs are a challenge, but we’re confident we can manage them within the budget.”

Gillingham said last month the city had enough “debt room” to finance the reno, calling it “an investment in Winnipeg’s future.”

Renovations to the building, which opened in 1905, will begin this year and likely wrap up in 2027. It was home to the city’s archives in 2013, when flooding from a rainstorm forced the historical documents to be moved. Since 2014, the irreplaceable photos and documents have been stored in a leased warehouse at 50 Myrtle St.

Jeff Browaty, the civic finance committee chairman, said that’s the way the province’s annual capital budget project payments, formally called the Strategic Infrastructure Basket Funding, goes, with the city not knowing for sure until they get a report from the province what will be funded.

“It’s weird how we handle it,” Browaty said. “It’s great we get this from the province, but the challenge is we don’t agree with it ahead of time.”

It’s not the only item the city had hoped would be funded. It also didn’t get $20.7 million to help replace the North Transit Garage and it gave the city $3.4 million less than the city had budgeted to help Winnipeg Transit transition to zero-emission buses.

Glen Simard, the municipal affairs minister, said the province wanted to prioritize the sewage plant upgrade.

“(It) is one of the largest infrastructure projects in generations,” Simard said.

“The city said this project is the most important priority and we agree, which is why our government stepped up with $30 million this year in order to build more homes, grow our economy and protect Lake Winnipeg for generations to come.”

Simard didn’t close the door on funding for other projects.

“We will continue to work with the City of Winnipeg on the North Transit Garage and the Winnipeg archives to get those projects over the finish line.”

The province is kicking in $4 million for the Portage Place mall revamp, matched with $4 million from the city, as well as $3.3 million for regional and local street renewal and $1.5 million for the new fire hall in Waverley West.

With matching amounts from the city, the province is also giving $5.6 million for the St. Vital Bridge rehabilitation, $4.8 million for the Urban Forest Renewal program and $3 million for riverbank stabilization.

Both the mayor and Browaty said they hope the provincial government will add more money to the sewage plant pot.

The city, provincial and federal governments had a deal to pay the $553-million cost of the second phase of the project. At that time, the costs were shared 33 per cent by the city, 36 per cent by the federal government and 30 per cent by the province.

But the price shot up to $1.035 billion.

Funding from the senior levels of government didn’t jump as much. As a result, the city is shouldering 45 per cent of the cost, the federal government is at 19 per cent, and the provincial government, with the latest increase, at 19 per cent.

“The additional allocation for the (treatment plant) will help keep costs more affordable for ratepayers and we’re working with the province and federal government to close the funding gap for this project because it’s key to building more homes and creating more jobs in Winnipeg,” Gillingham said.

Browaty said the city still hopes it can get to 40 per cent from the federal government, 33 per cent from the province, and 27 per cent from the city.

“It was always understood these upgrades would be shared between levels of government,” he said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca