City offers to add land to province’s plan for Lemay Forest park

The City of Winnipeg will offer 34 acres of land it owns alongside the privately owned Lemay Forest to support a future provincial park.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the lands will add to the provincial government’s controversial plan to expropriate the privately owned urban forest, which the premier previously said would extend to surrounding property.

“This is the city saying to the province (that) we want to be partners, you don’t need to expropriate city land. We will offer it to consolidate it all together to create a park,” said Gillingham.

On Friday, city council unanimously approved a proposal to provide the land and be an “active partner” in creating the park, with a detailed report on steps to do so expected in about six months.

“This really kind of checks a lot of boxes, as it were, in a lot of the goals the city has, the province has… in protecting green spaces,” said Gillingham.

While the mayor suggested offering the land is a “significant contribution” to the future park, he said the city does not have a current appraisal of the public land’s value.

The future of the Lemay Forest has triggered heated debate for more than a year, as many residents sought to preserve its trees. Some also shared concerns that development would disrupt unmarked graves from a former orphanage cemetery on part of the land.

Prior to the expropriation process, Tochal Development Group owned land at the site, where it planned to build a 5,000-bed assisted-living facility. The developer had publicly promised to create a buffer zone around any graves.

When asked if that battle over the land’s future affected the city’s interest in the land, the mayor spoke only of a goal to protect and enhance green space.

“We have goals of creating more green space and preserving park land. This can be a partnership… which benefits future generations of Winnipeggers and Manitobans,” said Gillingham.

A key planner on the assisted-living proposal questioned the two governments’ willingness to create a park, accusing officials of a “questionable” lack of public consultation since the province announced its expropriation plans last month.

“It’s moving so quickly for (a) land exchange…. A lot of people are moving very rapidly. Usually, these things take years, if not decades,” said John Wintrup.

Wintrup said it’s too soon to confirm if the developer will challenge the expropriation decision in court.

“We’re not rolling over, that’s for sure. The landowner wants fair-market value for the property…. There (are) various legal options,” he said.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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