Fort Garry - Future Heritage Park

Future Heritage Park

Work has begun on a project to establish a heritage park in the area surrounding what remains of the Upper Fort Garry. In the spring of 2010, a bill passed the House in the Manitoba Legislature, entitled The Upper Fort Garry Heritage Provincial Park Act.

In 2007, a development company, Crystal Developers, sought to build an apartment complex next to the fort's original "footprint". However, the Friends of Upper Fort Garry, a group dedicated to developing an historical interpretive park at the site, was convened to oppose them. The plan called for an interpretive centre just outside the old fort's walls, and a large surface parking lot that would have been placed closer to the walls than the apartment itself. After a City of Winnipeg-imposed deadline to raise funds to build a park on the site was nearing, Crystal Developers decided to grant the Friends an additional two years to finish raising the needed funds. Crystal ultimately bowed out of its proposed development plans. Two years later the City of Winnipeg approved the construction by Crystal Developers of a 25-storey apartment tower just west of the original location, on Assiniboine Ave.

Enough funds were raised by the Friends to purchase the buildings already on the site of their proposed heritage park, including a Petro-Canada gas station. The only building that was allowed to stay untouched was the current home of the Manitoba Club, which started as an organization in 1874, only one year after the incorporation of Winnipeg. The existing Manitoba Club building was completed in 1905. The historic Fort Garry Hotel across the street was built shortly thereafter, in 1913.

The plans for the future heritage park at the site of Upper Fort Garry were officially unveiled in May 2010.

From the Hansard Records of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, dated Monday, June 14, 2010, it is clear that the boundaries of the proposed Upper Fort Garry Heritage Provincial Park, described in Bill 27–The Upper Fort Garry Heritage Provincial Park Act then under consideration, would not include the Manitoba Club building. In the meeting referenced above, Mr. Jerry Gray (Friends of Upper Fort Garry), referring to the future park boundaries, states that the property is "bordered by Main Street on the east side, Assiniboine on the south side and Fort Street on the west side and then goes up to the back where the gate property is." Evidently, the Manitoba Club property on Broadway is excluded from the proposed heritage park, aside from being located on the same city block. According to the records of the Thirty-Ninth Legislature, Bill 27 received Royal Assent on June 17, 2010, by Proclamation of the Lieutenant-Governor Philip S. Lee.