Kinew makes Park Community Centre promise

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This article was published 14/08/2023 (975 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s a ray of hope for supporters of the Park Community Centre in Brandon, says a longtime board member, who wants to see it rebuilt and rented out for local concerts and events, with additional space for a childcare centre.

That ray came in the form of an election promise made by Manitoba’s leader of the NDP, Wab Kinew, while visiting the community centre on Sunday.

Flanked by several centre board members and people who live in the neighbourhood, Kinew said, if elected, the NDP would invest up to $1 million to rebuild the community centre, including space for a day care.

“Whenever I come to Brandon, I hear a lot about childcare,” Kinew said. “It seemed like there was a real win-win opportunity here to both support the needed community initiative, and to expand the childcare spaces available to meet the needs of families.

“We’ll commit a million dollars towards a cost-shared project, working not just with the municipal leadership, but here with the community leadership to ensure that we can get a new facility off the ground.”

In the past few years, Brandon City Council has considered demolishing Park Community Centre and replacing it with a greenspace, repairing the existing space or re-building altogether.

But in 2022, city staff said repairs would not be cost-effective, citing an engineering study.

In February, city staff recommended that council reject three demolition and construction bids, after the lowest bid came in at $300,000 more than had been allocated in this year’s budget for the project.

And at the beginning of August, the community centre was unsuccessful in its application for funding from Manitoba’s Arts, Culture and Sport in Community Fund, which gave more than $500,000 to the Riverbank Discovery Centre for a sculpture garden.

The board’s vision for a new community centre includes rental space for 120 people, a commercial kitchen, as well as the daycare said Eldon Schmitz, Park Community Centre board member who’s, “Stayed in the fight for five years trying to get the centre rebuilt.”

“It has to be rebuilt, there’s no way around it,” Schmitz said. “I’m the rental coordinator and it’s rented out all the time, even with our limit of 40 people.”

“So, the best thing that can happen is that it gets rebuilt with a commercial kitchen, with indoor and outdoor concerts planned for the future. It’s really an arts and cultural place, it’s not really a recreational place, so, we’re going ahead with that.”

Park Community Centre received a large donation from Western Manitoba’s Heritage Co-op in June, totalling $100,000 with funds from its Community Spaces program and Community Development Fund.

Schmitz said the board, consisting of 10 members, are always looking forward, love a cause, and added, this will be a blueprint for other community centres to come.

And even though he’s happy with the NDP election promise of funding, Schmitz said, getting involved in the politics of decision-making was never the intent.

“All this is political – both provincial, and with the city of Brandon, because some of councillors were dead against it in the beginning, but some have softened a little bit now. And I don’t like politics, and I don’t like being in the limelight either, but things have to happen, and somebody has to push it.”

Weighing in as NDP candidate for Brandon East, Glen Simard called out current MLA Len Isleifson for failing to deliver for the people of Brandon.

“He [Isleifson] couldn’t get the Park Community Centre the funding it needs but I will. I care about Brandon East families, and alongside Wab Kinew I will work hard to ensure that Brandon families have better health care and a thriving community.”

Isleifson said he will continue to advocate and work towards a solution for the Park Community Centre.

“I’m actively working with the mayor and council on solutions for Park Community Centre with hopes of course, of including a childcare facility.

“Community centres are of upmost importance to myself and the PC team, hence our $100 million investment in Arts, Culture and Sport in our communities,” Isleifson said in an email statement to the Sun.

The community centre board members are waiting to hear about a potential new sponsor that will keep their hopes of a new facility alive.

And city council promised not to demolish the centre before investigating a new process where designs are solicited, reviewed, and the search for a contractor is launched.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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