{"id":568872681,"date":"2020-03-17T15:55:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T20:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2020\/03\/17\/st-james-civic-centre-prepares-for-upgrades"},"modified":"2020-03-17T16:02:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T21:02:44","slug":"st-james-civic-centre-prepares-for-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2020\/03\/17\/st-james-civic-centre-prepares-for-upgrades","title":{"rendered":"St. James Civic Centre prepares for upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. James Civic Centre is about to undergo upgrades that will be close the community hub for at least one year but a local politician and some residents want to know if a proposed expansion will ever be undertaken.<\/div>\n
The facility at 2055 Ness Ave. is set to close on April 1 and eopen in the summer of 2021. Arena operations will likely resume in September 2021.<\/div>\n
Built in 1966, the Civic Centre has several aging systems that need to be replaced. The City of Winnipeg has approved a $9.7 million budget to replace critical mechanical and electrical systems, replace two roofs, repair the concrete arena slab and bring the building systems up to code. <\/div>\n
Other work will include repurposing the second floor into a new mechanical and electrical room, as well as adding a new material lift to provide better access to basement storage areas. A fire suppression system will also be installed.<\/div>\n
To enhance accessibility, improvements will be made to the lobby and lobby washrooms, and a universal toilet room will be added.<\/div>\n
A proposed 14,000-square-foot facility expansion might also be undertaken as a future project but for now only a portion of funding for that  project has been secured. It would cost an additional $14 million to be cost-shared among the three levels of government. So far, the City has approved $4.312 million, subject to provincial and federal funding.<\/div>\n
St. James MLA Adrien Salawould like to see clear funding commitments for the expansion project in place from both the provincial and federal governments. <\/div>\n
“I think the whole community deserves clarity on the future of the project. We’re really happy that the City is clearly prioritizing the renovations at the Civic Centre, but there’s still a lot of confusion about the future of the building,” Sala said. <\/div>\n
“It’s leaving a lot of people feeling confused and wondering how long the building will be closed and how they’ll plan to meet their family’s recreational needs. It seems highly unusual to start a project without knowledge of whether or not the second part of the project is going forward.”<\/div>\n
If the proposed expansion does go ahead, it would include several multi-purpose and meeting rooms, along with dedicated administrative space for St. James Assiniboia 55-plus Centre. Other improvements would focus on the auditorium, main entrance and washrooms, along with the development of a community kitchen.<\/div>\n
For now, however, the expansion phase remains on hold; if funding is made available, it would take an estimated three years to complete. <\/div>\n
In July 2018, the provincial government announced a commitment of up to $3.9 million towards the expansion and renovation of the St. James Civic Centre. The city has also applied for funding through the federal government’s Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.<\/div>\n
Similarly, St. James resident John Pidwerbesky would like to know more information about the future of the community hub. <\/div>\n
He hopes the project will include additional space at the St. James Civic Centre for the 55-plus Centre, since parking is an issue at Deer Lodge Centre, where the 55-plus group is now based.<\/div>\n
“I think there would be a lot more participation if people could simply drive up and go into the Civic Centre because there’s lots of parking there,” he said.<\/div>\n
“Delays are always a concern. They’ve been talking about it for a long time.”<\/div>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":291919101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,12],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-568872681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-metro"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Jennifer McFee","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2020\/03\/17\/st-james-civic-centre-prepares-for-upgrades","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"St. James Civic Centre prepares for upgrades","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2020\/03\/17\/st-james-civic-centre-prepares-for-upgrades","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2020\/03\/17\/st-james-civic-centre-prepares-for-upgrades"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-jm-civiccentre-supplied-march18.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-jm-civiccentre-supplied-march18.jpg"},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2020-03-17T20:55:00Z","datePublished":"2020-03-17T20:55:00Z","dateModified":"2020-03-17T21:02:44Z"},"rendered":"