Selkirk, Peguis deal two centuries in the making
City, First Nation teaming up to build $5-million strip mall in bustling community
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/05/2019 (2329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
SELKIRK — Selkirk and Peguis have struck a major new deal — only two centuries after the last one, the 1817 Selkirk Treaty.
Peguis First Nation revealed Thursday it is building a $5 million strip mall in the City of Selkirk — its first major investment in the city that once abutted its reserve before the band was relocated north.
“This comes about as part of our relationship with the people of Selkirk dating back to 1817” when Chief Peguis and Lord Selkirk signed the Selkirk Treaty, said current Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson.
“Today, we’re repatriating our lands and our traditional homeland of the St. Peter’s Reserve,” Hudson said at the construction site for the mall, on the commercial strip of newer Manitoba Avenue.
The history of the occasion was not lost on Mayor Larry Johannson either.
“Lord Selkirk and Chief Peguis are looking down on this and saying it’s about time,” said Johannson. “I think they would be beaming that we’re working this closely together.”
The Peguis band’s 7,000 square-foot-mall mall is a two-pronged development. At the same time, it is building a 14,000 square foot mall at 1065 Portage Avenue for $6.5 million. Both malls are on schedule to open by the end of July.
The Selkirk mall will house a gas bar, convenience store, pharmacy, chronic care centre, and cannabis store. It will create about 60 jobs.
Johannson said the city has no qualms about approving a cannabis retailer. “We welcome it,” he said. “It’s legal and there are opportunities there.”
The Peguis cannabis store is associated with Denver-based MJardin Group, the largest legal cultivator of marijuana in the United States. MJardin is also affiliated with Growforce Holdings, which is converting the former Maple Leaf meatpacking plant in Transcona into an indoor cannabis farm.
MJardin has been hired to provide management services for the Peguis cannabis operation. A name for the store has not yet been approved.
The chronic care facility, to be run by Toronto-based firm Clinic Network Canada, also uses cannabis as medicine in treatment of long-term pain like rheumatoid arthritis. The clinic will also have a mobile health unit to service people on Peguis reserve, about 180 kilometres north of Selkirk.
The band has been working with Interlake-East Regional Health Authority and the federal First Nation and Inuit Health Branch to gain the approval of Clinic Network treatments.
Clinic Network President Wayne Cockburn said the treatment centres don’t add to health care costs but rather alleviate hospitals from providing long-term treatment. “Hospitals are for acute care,” he said.
Hudson said the mall is being built with no government money whatsoever. The band is using debt financing for the majority of the cost. Selkirk’s part in the deal is to provide infrastructure like water and waste hookup.
In 2009, the band received $127 million in compensation for the illegal expropriation of its reserve in East Selkirk, which saw it relocated to north of Fisher Branch.
Hudson said the City of Selkirk is an important location for Peguis members historically but also today. About 600 band members live in the city, he said.
The band will be either a 49 or 51 per cent partner with the tenant businesses and will own the building. Hudson said the business plan was drafted by the Peguis Development Corp. and the Chief Peguis Investment Corporation. The band aims to eventually declare the site an urban reserve.
Johannson said the Peguis mall location is “one of the best lots on Manitoba Avenue and one of the last lots available.”
It’s only a start for Peguis investment in Selkirk, Hudson said. The band owns six parcels of land just north of the city and plans to turn them into residential housing, he said.
Selkirk is enjoying a growth spurt unlike any seen in half a century. A residential development that could be worth $55 million was announced earlier this year. The city also boasts a newly-minted $100 million Selkirk Regional Health Centre.
bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca