Arena to bear Gilleshammer’s name

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This article was published 10/08/2021 (1905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MINNEDOSA — When Minnedosa’s arena is finally completed, it’ll bear the name of one of the community’s leaders.

Premier Brian Pallister made an appearance at the Minnedosa Community Conference Centre Monday afternoon to announce the arena would be named after his friend and former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Harold Gilleshammer.

Originally from Rivers, Gilleshammer represented the now-defunct constituency of Minnedosa as MLA from 1988 to 2003, serving as minister of family services, minister of culture, heritage and citizenship, minister of finance and minister of labour.

After leaving politics, Gilleshammer became a citizenship judge in 2007.

Minnedosa’s long quest to replace its aging arena paid off last month when the federal and provincial governments announced they would be jointly contributing $3.7 million toward the project.

When built, the new arena will have a full-size ice surface, five dressing rooms, a full kitchen, upper and lower viewing areas, a multipurpose space, an accessible elevator and an indoor walking track.

Joining Pallister for the announcement were Riding Mountain Progressive Conservative MLA Greg Nesbitt and Minnedosa Mayor Pat Skatch as well as Gilleshammer himself and members of his family.

Making one of his first public appearances since Manitoba’s public health orders became less strict last Saturday, a mask-less Pallister commented, “it’s great to see real people instead of those bloody Zoom calls.”

Beyond Gilleshammer’s community contributions, the premier highlighted his personal relationship from their time together in government.

“When I came to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in 1992 in a byelection, it was in a class by myself,” Pallister said. “The fact of the matter is, not having anyone else going into the legislature at the same time as you meant that you relied on the experience of other people very much. I see Glen Findlay here, who I relied on very much and asked him for help and advice at the time when I came in, and Glen and Harold Gilleshammer were kind enough to extend that advice and counsel as they did, I’m sure, to many others over the years.”

However, the premier said it was the advice and lessons Gilleshammer gave others over the years as well as the work as a representative and judge for the community that earned him this latest accolade.

“This project has been in the works for a long time,” Skatch said during prepared remarks. “When Harold was our MLA for the area, he would be seeking opportunities for the province to work with communities, improving infrastructure, roads, ensuring we had good education and health care. Thank you Harold, for all your years as our MLA.”

Speaking to the Sun after the announcement, Gilleshammer said he only found out the facility was being named after him in the last couple of days.

“It’s wonderful,” he said. “I thought a lot about the time when I was the MLA and a minister. We accomplished a lot of things, but the one missing piece was always the arena. We built a new hospital, we redeveloped the lake, we put a new bridge on Main Street, taking it from two lanes to five lanes. We did a lot of things, (but) we never really got the arena done until now.”

In a scrum after the event, Pallister was asked if other announcements might be coming during the government’s cabinet retreat taking place in Westman over the next couple of days. He didn’t commit to any, but he did talk about one of the major topics of discussion.

“We’ve got some major economic consequences, as does every jurisdiction, I suppose you could say, as a result of the pandemic,” he said. “But I was really pleased to see in the new (Statistics Canada) numbers from last week that Manitoba’s leading the way in economic recovery. Our ministerial team is going to be presenting some very interesting ideas and projects that will be considered, I’m sure, by our caucus.”

On the subject of a potential federal election call, the premier said he was glad the writ hadn’t dropped before several funding announcements, including the new provincial-federal child care agreement, had been finalized.

In February, Pallister told reporters that Manitoba’s schools would be off limits as polling stations if a federal election was called. He’s still leaning that way now.

“If the timing of this is as we suspect it may be — there’s a lot of speculation about the middle or end of September, for example — our kids will just be going back to school. Any additional risks, we’d like to avoid, unnecessary risks. There are other options for polling stations … I have talked to other premiers and I think there are a couple of others you’ll find are of the same mind. They’d prefer not to have the polling stations in the schools this time around.”

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