Manitoba Metis Federation Buy Former National Research Labs Downtown

The Manitoba Metis Federation via multiple settlements has purchasing various downtown buildings and businesses to serve the Metis and the Manitoba community at large. The home office for the organization is at 150 Henry which is the former home of the CPR regional offices for the railway when they consolidated scattered offices including at Portage and Main into one location. From 1959 to 1999, CPR used the site for administrative and communication. The MMF purchased the building and CPR and AT&T leased part for some time after that. In recent years, the MMF have had to fortify around their building because of encampments and danger to their property. Still, the four floor building serves as central office even they continue to buy property.

At Portage and Main, the MMF has taken over the former Bank of Montreal as well as BellMTS two office buildings at 333 Main and the parking lots behind them on Pioneer. Further down Main Street, the former Wawanesa headquarters at 200 Main and 165 Fort Street and their parking lots are filled with MMF workers as well.

The MMF is listed as having around 1,200 employees. Some of them are in rented offices elsewhere so the Metis have been looking to consolidate and invest in property. With that in mind, they have had their eyes on available properties in downtown Winnipeg for a while. Nearly no one wants to sell their surface parking lot cash cows so MMF has had to wait for companies looking to downsize and move or in the case of Wawanesa, consolidate to one headquarters. Hoarding parking spaces is a 70 year Winnipeg tradition.

Lloyd Axworthy as a cabinet minister in the 1980s, tried hard to bring development to downtown Winnipeg. To that end, he brought the National Research Council facility to the former St. Paul's College site and just as about to me complete the new Conservative government under Brian Mulroney cut it. The building, complete in 1985, sat empty for years till the Mulroney government started adding some labs in 1992. This was largely in response to the outright disgust  in the west about the CF-18 contract going to Quebec, despite Winnipeg's Bristol Aerospace having the lower price and higher technical rating. The Institute of Biodiagnostics was born.

Strange, when you let scientists do research in applied areas, they actually can make great advances. Amazing research created world class discovery in MRIs. Bu 2005, so much progress was made that a second office was built of 40,000 square feet to create about a combined 230,000 square feet. It is a very modern campus overall.

Nothing much happened until once again Axworthy was a cabinet minister. However, as soon Stephen Harper, the program was cut, 54 workers fired and the buildings put up for sale. This led to the problem with the MMF. When federal land goes up for sale, it has to go up for sale to First Nation and Metis to settle outstanding land claims. It is unclear what happened but Covid probably had the Feds thinking they needed the buildings. Ultimately, they didn't, especially with a new NRC facility near the airport. Labs and workers still can make use of the building but no reason why they can't lease space in what is largely empty floors now.

So after seven years of legal wrangles, the Manitoba Metis Federation have the building and will be bringing 100 staff from their Child and Family Services unit at 2000 Portage Avenue near Deer Lodge to Ellice. As for the 70 labs, the MMF wants to begin a nurse training program there as well as an MRI. This story is worth a followup later on. 

It is hard to assess the MMF's overall governance and planning. It appears they have times the market right. They do have employees in support agencies like training and child and family services who need office space. Income generation through owning parking lots if well established in Canada. They are building apartment space and being a landlord is well established at generation income. The MMF is looking at buying the Fort Garry Hotel. I'll write more on that at some point.

The MMF is not the first to create a business conglomerate. Some have been created and failed while others continue to offer supports to their community. real estate should have some lasting value. Hotels can be valuable but not upgrades. Ask the Richardsons about that and the Fairmont Hotel. That upgrade is $120 million. The point is that some businesses need capital and good management. And ultimately, a plan. This includes a succession plan. Who takes over when David Chartrand retires?

Manitoba Metis Federation Buys Two More Towers in Winnipeg

The Manitoba Metis Federation continues to put together quite the portfolio of real estate holdings in Winnipeg. The investments are very much a consolidation of space already being used by the MMF for their staff. The two towers with BellMTS logos on them will see MMF staff starting to move in right away. The towers beside the former Bank of Montreal building at Portage and Main which is being turned in a heritage centre are at 333 Main Street and 191 Pioneer Avenue. Bell is no longer supporting a large head office staff. Occupancy at 333 Main in recent year has dropped to about 68% vacancy. The towers were listed in recent years for sale by Artis in Winnipeg for about $33.5 million but the price of the sale this year has not been disclosed. As office workers start to move in, occupancy will rise so that the vacancy rate will be 32%. The MMF indicates that 160 workers will be moving in the taller of the two towers. A parking lot was part of the purchase.

Just down the street the MMF has offices in the the former Wawanesa tower at Broadway and Main as well as other offices in the former sport federation building. Wawanesa consolidated their five offices in a tower at True North Square. MMF has around 300 employees working out of the building at 200 Main Street. That office building also comes with both an underground as well as surface parking lot.

The MMF has other offices they have been using but as their leader David Chatrand explained, they have upgrades needed that need to be done. It is likely the move to to new BellMTS towers will be an upgrade on quality compared to some of the older buildings out there. As if to demonstrated the disrepair of downtown buildings, it was reported that the Canada Building is closed after flooding affecting Manitoba government offices.

The MMF is its own level of government as a Red River Metis, the leadership has chosen downtown Winnipeg as where their cultural, political and economic centre is. It is hard to peg how many employees they have altogether but at least 500 now will work along Main in the 24 floor 333 Main Street, the 13 floor 191 Pioneer Avenue and the 7 floor 400 Main Street location. The MMF have a total of 11 buildings downtown including 280 Fort Street, the former Carlton Club and Yoga Public location.

The 280 Fort Street is planned as a 36 room boutique hotel. There will be many watching that with interest to see how well it goes. The $154 million in land claim money awarded in 2018 has helped spur these investments and some such as RV park near St. Laurent are starting to turn a profit. A tree nursery is also a business owed by the Metis.  The total value of buildings and parking lots bought total around $122 million.

The MMF has signed a $500 million agreement for housing and has recently built 20 units of transitional housing at old Bell Hotel location for $4.3 million. Elsewhere in the province they are building houses and retirement residences. It is likely we will see more housing as there is a limit to how much commercial buildings the Metis want to be exposed to. 

The next 20 years the critical area for development in housing and the Metis will likely be critical in building that housing. Of course much of this will be for the Metis community but like their commercial buildings, it will likely have tenants across the spectrum. The business success for Metis will continue to come from from the diversity of their businesses that serve all Canadians. Listening to David Chartrand, he seems to take Winnipeg's overall health as critical to the success of Metis health. He isn't wrong. Partnership is the way to go for prosperity and long term healthy success.

The hotel that is proposed for 280 Fort Street could be a new business area for the Metis. First Nations across Manitoba are having success in hotels and tourism. We could see more of these hotels in Winnipeg and other provincial towns and cities. Real estate has always been one area where enormous wealth can be derived but there is risk in the business. It will be interested to see how the Metis handle their portfolio.

Manitoba Metis Federation to Take Over Bank of Montreal Building

A view of the the Bank of Montreal from the Fairmont Hotel.

It has been announced that the bank has sold the building to the Manitoba Metis Federation. The bank itself will be moving the branch across to 201 Portage which presently as a RBC sign at the top of the bulding.

Work being down at 201 Portage Avenue. This used to an inside corridor. At one time there were metal doors that closed at either end. At some point they were stolen and sold for scrap presumably. The space has been dead space ever since. Some people used to sneak down there to smoke.

For 201 Portage Avenue which used to be the TD building and then Canwest building, it was not a good look. It seems the banks are changing spot on the street regularly now. The TD logo is now across the street.

The Bank of Montreal building built in 1913 and declared a heritage site in 1980 has a memorial out front commemorates the 200 employees who died in WWI. It has been lovingly been upkept but in recent years the corner has decayed and it isn't easy to access.

The handover seemed done on Manitoba's 150th birthday was done with a high degree of bonhomie. The bank's sale is a statement that it did not want its old building to sit empty. The purchase by the MMF is also a statement that they are there to do business and and bringing their not inconsiderable financial offices into the building.

Presently, the Manitoba Metis Federation have their offices in a large building built to house all the Canadian Pacific offices at 150 Henry. It is a handsome building and fairly large right by the Disraeli Freeway, I have no special insight to what they will do with their old building but it does house their vocational college which could benefit from having more space.

However, consider this: The MMF hinted that they will be making an announcement soon on bigger property than the Bank of Montreal at Portage and Main.

Lest anyone wonder if MMF has the money for purchases, keep in mind they were awarded $154 million in 2018 by the Supreme Court on a 1981 challenge on a failure to compensate for 1.4 million acres they were promised 150 years ago.

The MMF has been pushing hard for Metis to seek higher learning and a list each year those getting medical, legal, engineering, educational and social sciences degrees. It is impressive. Education is how you can really assist people in living fulfilling lives where they contribute to the overall benefit of themselves and society.

A number of people have reacted negatively or fearfully or in many cases with darker feelings to this announcement. Manitoba joined Confederation with the Metis leading the way. It has become a strong province but it has tried to absolve itself of the agreement they signed to 150 years ago. It has taken decades for the courts to resolve all this.

People complain about the poverty and the permanent underclass in Manitoba. The solution for that is not prison or death. It is fulfilling the obligation that was made and watching the Metis become the Manitobans they always wanted to be when this originally started.

I am happy the Bank of Montreal will not whither in neglect or as we dithered on what to do with it. It will be a cultural and business centre for the Metis and in some we'll see the province lifted in ways that show we are in this together.

Winnipeg is Metis Land

Metis land according to the Manitoba Act

Winnipeg is Metis land.

The Supreme Court has said that the promise of the Manitoba Act to set aside 566,000 hectares or 1.4 million acres did not live up to the fiduciary responsibility and did not honour the Crown.

The majority of the Justices said this:

 Although the honour of the Crown obliged the government to act with diligence to fulfil Section 31, it acted with persistent inattention and failed to act diligently to achieve the purposes of the Section 31 grant," the ruling said. "This was not a matter of occasional negligence, but of repeated mistakes and inaction that persisted for more than a decade, substantially defeating a purpose of Section 31.

The dissenting Justice Marshall Rothstein said that it would "impossible to predict" the consequences of the decision of the majority of the court.

He continues:

"If this land grant obligation had been made today, we would have expected a more expeditious procedure. However, the obligation was not undertaken by the present day federal government. It was undertaken by the government over 130 years ago, at a time when the government and the country were newly formed and struggling to become established. We cannot hold that government to today's standards when considering circumstances that arose under very different conditions."

The judge is correct is his assessment. But he is also ignoring the corruption that arose as a result of the Metis land deal and how many people were left out in the end.

One Winnipeg journalist called the decision "judicial activism" and a dangerous precedent. The problem is that the Constitution doesn't leave room for considerations that Rothstein states. He basically confirms things were not right according to the Manitoba Act.

The Supreme Court would be wrong to say there is an expiry on the Constitution.  Now that would be judicial activism and political.

Journalists can't say for judges to be strict Constitutionalists and then cry foul when a decision goes against what they want.

If the government believes the Supreme Court have committed the federal government to something unsustainable, Harper might be able to invoke the "notwithstanding clause".

The decision can be set aside for five years and extended indefinitely. This gives Parliament supremacy over this court decision. Now, I didn't hear certain academics and journalists asking for Parliament to do this. The reason is that it would be controversial and it is easier to blame the court for forcing it to do unpopular things.

We simply don't know what this decision by the court will entail just yet. It will be up to the Metis and the federal government to figure out.

We do know that within  days of the decision that Manitoba Hydro's decision to run Bipole III down the west side of the province possibly faces a court challenge if consultations and compensation are not forthcoming.

The Manitoba Metis Federation has said they are not looking to throw people off their lands. This certainly would trigger a notwithstanding clause from the Feds or province.

However, what about Crown lands? Well, those are certainly fair game. In short, if the federal and provincial governments wish to settle what the court points out was unfair, they will have to talk land deals and compensation.

Nearly the entire city of Winnipeg is on Metis land. This raises the interesting idea that surplus Crown land like the Kapyong Barracks has Metis first dibs and NOT First Nations ones.

Let me repeat that:

The federal court has said that the Harper government must consult with First Nations before disposing of the Kapyong Barracks. The latest decision by the Supreme Court puts that in question.

Who has first dibs on Kapyong? Section 31 of the Manitoba Act was brought in on May 12, 1870. Treaty 1 was enacted on August 3, 1871.

The Metis get first dibs on the Kapyong Barracks if this goes to the Supreme Court.

None of any of this will decided in the next days and months. The word game-changer is used far too often but in this case, it is the description for what this all means.

Now, Manitoba doesn't have to come out poorly from all this. If Metis get land and compensation, there could be a very large economic boost to the province. It would be fair to say though that this could get rough and that people should watch for elbows into the corners.

The Chinese as a curse say "hope you live in interesting times."

These are indeed interesting times.

First Taser Incident in Winnipeg

Well, it was bound to happen soon than later. Winnipeg has had its first Taser related death.

The Manitoba Metis Federation wants an inquiry. The father of the boy wants an inquiry too but he seems more apt to believe that the boy might have been threatening police.

An investigation is standard in such a case. Unfortunately, the ability of the police to investigate their own has taken a hit due to the Taman inquiry. Even if it is found that the police had no choice but to fire in self defence, the doubts might linger.

It is hard to hear cops say they can't recall if a colleague was drunk or had been drinking the night someone was killed. It is hard to hear about how no notes were taken by various police forces, how no one seemed to ask a cop if he had been drinking and the special treatment a cop received afterwards both by the police and the courts. These are the things that the Taman inquiry has shown in its many weeks of testimony.

Police should not investigate police. It hurts their credibility. And credibility is what police need to do their job.

The Taman incident has shaken faith in the police and the justice system in a big way.

In terms of Tasers, I think it is clear that Tasers can be lethal. The RCMP and manufacturer of the Taser have tried to say that the Taser doesn't kill but there seems to be a growing consensus that it can lead to heart failure in some people. A 17 year old died from a weapon that is supposed to be non-lethal. That should raise eyebrows right there.

The problem as I see it is that if police believe the weapon is non-lethal, they are more apt to use it than a gun. Tougher guidelines are needed on use.

An inquiry is needed in regards to this death. It should be open and forthcoming as it can be and make recommendations in regards to the Taser at the very least.

In terms of the police and investigating its own, I believe that for its own good, the police should advocate for an independent body.

As for the issue of race, a frank discussion needs to continue.



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