Prairie Public Television in Manitoba 1975

The year 1975 was an important year for television in Manitoba. Cable came to Winnipeg in 1968 and over the next few years more and more people in the city were starting to sign up for it. The first station in Winnipeg was a bilingual CBWT in 1954 and for the first two years it had affiliations with the Paramount Network in Los Angeles which meant Winnipeggers first exposure to wrestling on TV was Hollywood Wrestling. The below map is from Wikipedia listing on the defunct Paramount network.

CBC began to scale up year by year. News was just a weekly affair Tuesday in 1959. By 1960, the CBC was split into an English channel and French channel. In 1961, Winnipeg was home to a third channel of the  eventual CTV network. CJAY (later CKY by 1973) and the two CBC channels were the only channels picked up over the air. It wasn't always easy to pick up the French channel in our family home in River Heights even with rabbit ears.

With no cable most of the 1960s, Winnipeg made do with three channels with a fourth KCND beaming in from Pembina, North Dakota. This station, the smallest in the United States, carried NBC and ABC programming and was strictly set up as a pirate station for the Winnipeg market. Reception wasn't always great so the broadcaster actually sold antennas in Winnipeg because profitability depended on Canadian businesses buying commercials. We never did get an antenna but many home owners in the city did. The way, the C in  KCND stood for Canada. The above was the full page ad published in Winnipeg Free Press on August 29. 1975 when KCND shut down and moved to Canada. Below unsourced picture of KCND. Unknown date. The View from Seven has a wonderful backgrounder on the race for KCND and CJAY to get on the air. https://theviewfromseven.wordpress.com/tag/cjay/

Colour TV broadcasts in Canada did not start till 1966. Even though U.S. broadcasts were being produced for some time in colour, Canada was slow to adopt. In Winnipeg, it was not more common until 1969. This was probably directly related to cable first coming to the city in 1968 and the availability of so much colour programming from ABC, CBS and NBC. Still, it was not till 1974 that full-time colour programming came to Canada. It was a slow rollout to say the least. Kind of like Hi Def from Standard Def which seems like it has taken even more time.

Cable TV was an improvement on choice of channels for people in Winnipeg. However, reception continued to be a problem in the warmer months. A bad thunderstorm and the picture might be unwatchable. Even the French channel in the last 1970s and early 1980s could fuzz out, The racy weekend fare of the French channel was usually what was the least consistent in reception. The complaints on reception on every U.S. came in every year for more than 15 years.

The offerings of KCND made people in Winnipeg crave more of the offerings it had, especially older movies and past TV series. Even kids, who had plenty of material from the U.S. networks such as Saturday cartoons knew that there was programming they would never find on those stations. For example, I saw the animated Star Trek before the original series. I missed out on the the first 1960s run of the show as I was too young.

Our family travelled to U.S. on long camping trips and to Grand Forks or Fargo for weekend trips starting in the 1970s. Every now and then we'd stay in motels on the long trips and there is when we first encountered PBS, the U.S. public broadcaster. We were already familiar with Sesame Street which CBC showed with Canadian segments in 1972, three years after it started in the U.S. Sesame Street actually preceded PBS' origins. The kids show started in 1969 whereas PBS started in 1970.

I remember in 1973 when in the States during a long weekend seeing PBS on a hotel TV doing gavel to gavel coverage of the Watergate hearings. It was the first network to actually show it on primetime. Remember my parents being rather horrified and my dad saying that my grandfather had thought Richard Nixon had been a good president. My brother and sister were not so interested but none of us were unware of how tense things were in the U.S. with the Vietnam War and Watergate going on. It was much easier to seek refuge in Sesame Street although in those early years our parents were wondering if we learning too much Spanish rather than French. The CBC segments removed the Spanish content over the years for French or unique Canadian segments. Many were filmed right in Winnipeg.

August 30, 1975, Winnipeg Free Press

It is quite extraordinary that although TV in Manitoba began in 1954 (first stations for Canada in Toronto and Montreal in 1952), it took some time for the country to develop infrastructure to support additional channels. By the end of the 1950s, 9 out of 10 families in Canada had a black and white TV. And although there was a hunger for Canadian content, there was so little of it. And in some cases, no motivation to create it by the private sector. By 1958, there was a recognition that for English Canada in particular, reliance on the United States entirely for content was not in the self interest of the country. By 1968, that came with a real mission to support Canadian content.

It came just in time because cable television really exposed all of Canada to huge amounts of U.S. product. They very culture of Canada came into question on whether our ability to stand as nation was strong enough to survive. We had just become an independent nation and that need to make our own way was strong but it didn't come without support. Some critics to this very day want to end that support but have never indicated how they expect culture and business to flourish in such an environment. In some cases, it seems to suggest we should be part of the U.S. which I don't see wide support of.

By 1975, people in Winnipeg were hankering for a third station based in Winnipeg. CBC and CTV were accepted well enough. In fact, the two networks were helping to entrench professional sport in Canada by covering the NHL and CFL. For the NHL, there was nearly no interest in the broadcast side of things south of the border. Likewise, curling would never have generated interest in the U.S. It was ownership and content rules that made that possible. Left to their own ends, the stations would have become affiliates of U.S. networks and done none of those things.

By the mid 1970s, it became untenable for KCND on the border beaming into Winnipeg, especially when the Canadian government was about to license a new local station built around somewhat around the same format. That set the stage for one of the most unique broadcasting sales and relocations in North America history where KCND became CKND and moved from Pembina to Winnipeg with a change to Canadian ownership.

But this isn't about that change in 1975 TV in Winnipeg as significant as it was. This is about the coming of Prairie Public Television and PBS to the Winnipeg market. The Public Broadcast System was new to North Dakota even though educational TV went back further historically in the State. By 1970, PBS bought the public system and in 1974 the Prairie Public Television network was official in name and title. This happened the same year as KGFE was established in Grand Forks, North Dakota which made it possible to for a signal to be picked up and put on Winnipeg's cable line-up.

It is safe to say that the arrival of CKND and Prairie Public TV in 1975 was a game changer for television in Winnipeg. CKND replicated the old movies and series that made KCND popular while fulfilling their CRTC mandate of local news and sports that made the local market truly competitive for the next two decades. The first broadcasts of the Winnipeg Jets began on CKND in their WHA days. However, they did meaningful work in indigenous and Metis reporting and had the Ray St. Germaine Show. Not mention talks shows and kid shows.

Meanwhile, Prairie Public TV which was only five years as a PBS station when it joined the Winnipeg cable line-up probably had no idea how much support financially Canadians would put into their public TV enterprise, The small curtained studio during pledge week would have phones ringing off the hook for movies and other programs. The production values were quaint but when the host read off the pledges, more than half of them were from Manitobans. Other PBS stations have run afoul with with Canadian Revenue Agency over the years but not Prairie Public. It created a clear division and board of directors for Manitoba and they made their own decisions including funding programs made locally for Prairie Public.

In the beginning Saskatchewan was part of Prairie Public but for many years have received their signal from Detroit PBS. Winnipeg also receives a signal from Detroit on cable but it is not on HD. Since 1982, around 20% of Canadian households get their PBS from Detroit. The thing is that that Detroit does not issue Canadian tax receipts nor has a group in Canada that does what Prairie Public does. Occasionally, I have watched a pledge drive by Detroit PBS and it is quite striking the amount of callers from Saskatchewan and Manitoba calling to make pledges. Nearly 2.5 million Canadians get Detroit PBS in their homes. That is actually more than in Detroit itself.

Even with a station in Grand Forks, hot summers and a storm could zap the signal. I remember watching Where Eagles Dare with my parents in the late 1970s starring Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton. First time for any in the family to watch this 1968 movie set in WWII and it was a real corker. It was down to the last few minute and the big reveal was about to be made when the worsening storm outside and all the way down to the Dakotas took the show off the air. It was replaced by static while I screamed nooo for at least 10 minutes. Went to bed not knowing how it ended and it would take a number of years to watch it again to the end. 

It is easy to imagine this type of loss of signal from a lot of the North Dakota stations led to the 1986 decision by cable companies in Manitoba and Saskatchewan dropping a number of stations. Winnipeg dropped the NBC and CBS Fargo stations for Detroit. While the signal was better, the news in metro market there was a far cry much more peaceful North Dakota. A move to Toledo stations was not much better. The last move to Minneapolis stations was much better accepted.

Throughout this time, cable continued to carry WDAZ (ABC) and Prairie Public in Manitoba. While WDAZ in Devil's Lake/Grand Forks lost its station, the signal and all its commercial inserts from the city remain except where Canadian commercial substitution is in effect. The near Manitoba death experience saw the two stations boost their signal strength and they have been a fixture of our insight into North Dakota ever since. Not to be outdone, CBC has been a fixture of Grand Forks cable stations since the 1980s as well. 

Former stations in Fargo of KXJB (CBS) and KTHI (ABC and later NBC)  were delisted with the switch to NBC and CBS signals from Detroit and then later to Toledo and Minneapolis. The two stations had the distinction of having the tallest towers in the world for their antennas. KTHI is now KVLY and KXJB became KRDK. The new KLVY keeps on the KXJB name and call sign as well as the CBS affiliation under one roof. They share the same news crews and studios.

Digital has changed how local stations are in the United States. Every one of them has several split off from their signal. Even Prairie Public Television has four different offerings. In Manitoba, we receive only the main channel but there is also PBS Kids, World, Lifelong and MN Ch. Manitobans who donate to Prairie Public get Passport access to content online. 

The relationship between Manitoba and North Dakota's Prairie Public Television has been a healthy one that has been good for both countries. Canadian Revenue Agency has been fully supportive of organization in Manitoba that supports Prairie Public unlike some other groups in Canada. The reason, in short, is that Manitoba keeps a separate board of directors and actually creates award winning programming that has viewers both sides of the border. Canadian viewers also get to support Prairie Public in getting top flight programming that includes Frontline and Masterpiece as well as unique documentaries and dramas. 

It is a shame that Saskatchewan had to go Detroit in 1986. Any contribution they make does not get a tax receipt in Canada and no unique Canadian programming that is from Saskatchewan ever airs in Detroit and never will.

In two years, it will be 50 years of Prairie Public TV in Manitoba. In that time we have seen them grow from that tiny pledge TV studio to a professional operation that contributes unique programming to the prairies. In a digital world, it is hard to see where broadcasting will be in the future but the links between North Dakota and Manitoba ought to be stronger, not weaker. 

Certainly when 1975 hit with two new TV stations for the Winnipeg market, it was as exciting as you can imagine. Both CKND and Prairie Public TV were about as different as can be but both enriched the province with both local, North American and international fare.

Original Joe's Closes St. Vital Location

Original Joes's built their first restaurant in River Heights at the corner of Grant and Kenaston in 2010. It was the old location of Grapes which had lasted for decades until it fell out of fashion. They built their next one beside St. Vital Centre two years later. And a third one opened out on west Portage at Unicity in 2020.

The restaurant group started in 1998 and is presently part of the Recipe Unlimited colossus that might employ the most employees in the business in Winnipeg. They also own The Keg, Montana's, New York Fries and many more. In recent years, this company has closed all their Kelsey's in Winnipeg.

In the last week they shuttered the Original Joe's at St. Vital. Details of why were not revealed but as a best guess, it might be because it was harder to get to than one might think. There was no direct route back and forth between the mall and the restaurant.

Over the years, it has become more and more apparent that getting into St. Vital Centre when rush hours or holidays are around is not as easy feat. It gets harder each year as more traffic head both south and east to growing suburbs beyond but also use the mall as their central shopping area.

It is highly likely another restaurant group will take a chance on this locations if given a chance. When Recipe Unlimited closed Kelsey's in Winnipeg, many were taken over by restaurants like Smitty's. The fact that a patio is already in place has to be a selling point.

It is a tough time running a restaurant at the best of times. Many have struggled terribly with staffing even as minimum wages have gone up. Immigration is increasing but the rate of people retiring and leaving the job market seems to rising even fast. The increase in inflation and interest rates could also mean mean people are more likely to cut dining out. It is a difficult market to assess. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see if something new comes to this location.

More Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women?

The question has to be asked: Are bodies being disposed to dump areas around Winnipeg because the belief is that they won't be found and won't be subject to a search even if there is a suspicion a victim might be there?

A 33 year indigenous mother of four was discovered by city workers on Monday and today police have identified her as Linda Mary Beardy of Lake St. Martin First Nation. Were it not for keen eyed city workers, it may have been another family in Winnipeg with no answers.

There is a lot to wait for in terms of police work to do. So far they haven't ruled the death as a homicide. What the investigation will reveal is still unknown. The danger for many people is probably overwhelming.

It is not normal for this to be happening. Not surprisingly, it is news nationally and internationally in that it falls into the most horrific category of crimes against persons.

The snow that is falling today could have easily hidden that a person was present at the Brady Road dumpsite. The police should be very concerned that people are ending up there. More needs to be done to track loads that end up at the site. Brady Road has some good tracking. Other sites next to nothing. Nevertheless, even with tracking, Brady Road is a massive place and busy at all times. Given how many times police have been called to the place makes one wonder how longer the status quo can continue.

The police chief Danny Smyth might have unwittingly given comfort to those seeking to hide their crimes to use dumpsites more often. It is no different than our rivers which only when more routine dragging of the rivers took place gave those second thoughts about using it for such purposes.

Winnipeg is a diverse and vital community but has also had a reputation from its origin as a tough and violent place. There has always been a vulnerable population that has struggled with less and had less supports of having a home, health, job and those who care and watch out for them.  The faith in police, justice and government are frail.

Safety is first and foremost in the mind of those in the city and province. If the feeling is that searches won't be done, it only undermines the sense that justice can be done. It only comforts those who commit awful acts that they will remain free.

It can't go on and it shouldn't go on.

Deepest of sadness to the family and all those who suffer not knowing. We have to make it our mission to end this.

Edit: It appears that the woman is question climbed into the bin. There may be more to the story and police are open to more information. This is a tragic situation. Full credit to the Brady Road staff for being on top of things. We can only imagine the desperate search if they hadn't reported in.

Birks Jewellers Closes in Winnipeg

 

Known now as Maison Birks, it generally is called Birks Jewellers in Winnipeg. This past week the company said it is closing the last store in Winnipeg at 191 Lombard across from the Richardson Building. It has been at that location for 15 years. At the time of their move from Polo Park from a very prominent location, it seemed counter-intuitive to re-locate back downtown from the most popular mall in the province. However, Birks said that it was more profitable since they didn't have to pay a percentage to the mall owners as they did at their last location.

Generations of Winnipeggers were patrons of Birks from 1903 till 2023. Occupying the former YMCA building next to Eaton's for decades, it was a fairly massive presence over three floors. In 1987, as Portage Place was going up, they leapfrogged to center court of Polo Park for that mall's expansion. The beautiful old location of Birks became Musiplex on Portage Avenue.

While Polo Park seemed less glorious the three floor posh Portage Avenue location, the trade-off was the huge foot traffic. And Birks maintained an exclusive look and feel than other jewelry stores in the mall. It always felt like a place where you'd need an appointment to discuss the family jewels. And surely, it must have been like that for generations. It is the place your great grandparents came to from the turn of the century.

By all accounts Birks did well for the next few decades at Polo Park. The late 1980s expansion of Polo Park had put new life in the place even when anchors like Eaton's closed, they were replaced with stores like The Bay. By 2000, the largest movie complex in the province was built on the site and it seemed all the major retailers had to be at the mall.. 

The latest earning report from Maison Birks was not great. Many jewelers have been hit hard by synthetic diamonds lowering overall price. It could be that the new generation are less likely to have gold plated this or that or a silver tea service. It is unclear exactly why Birks closed. They opened a store in the CF Chinook mall the same week. Perhaps they should have never left CF Polo Park to begin with.

The now closed Maison Birks in the Union Tower on the first floor looks out to Portage and Main. Just across the street is Hy's new patio and the Richardson Building. Kitty corner the Bank of Montreal has been under renovation for months. A branch of 529 Steakhouse will be set up there. One wonders if Birks had held on, would their business have improved at the corner?

We'll never know. The space left by Birks departure is a marquee space and hopefully, it won't stay empty long. Over the last few years there has been an increase in residential units on Waterfront Drive and along Main Street. Office conversions to residential and warehouse to residential along with new builds continue to take place but it is a slow process. And with 500,000 people a year moving to Canada including 20,000 or so per year to Manitoba, we have to quicken the pace.

The Associated Press is reporting that more companies are pursuing the wealthy shopper who continues to spend even in the face of inflation. For sure this might make Birks think they should have waited. It also might mean they come back. Still, it is the end of an era as a jewelry store that served generations of Winnipeg is no longer part of the Winnipeg landscape.

Magazines

 

I love magazines. Still do. 

When I was young we did not usually subscribe to too many magazines. Things like Consumer Reports, Women's Day and other were in the house. Others were received them from grandparents when they were done with them. For years that was usually Reader's Digest from my dad's side of the family. We had the the Winnipeg Tribune delivered to our River Heights home and I was a carrier from about 7 years old. Both the Free Press and the Trib were evening papers and the newspaper bundles were dropped off late afternoon and papers were to be delivered after school. Below from the Hulton Archive. See Free Press peaking out.

The 1970s were a busy a time and somewhat of a golden era for print media. A number of new magazines began and  check out stands and book stores were filled with all manner of offerings. People Magazine started in 1974,  Maclean's went weekly in 1975, Starlog in 1976, TV Guide Canada came onto newsstands in 1977, US Magazine in 1977 and Omni in 1978. There were quite a few others.

Our family didn't get cable from Videon till 1971. It was the same year we got a colour TV from my mom's parents. It was a huge cabinet TV and the picture tube was 21 inches. The TV cost about $500 which is $3000+ in today's dollars. The aspect was 4:3 but the quality of the Zenith TV was great. And Videon was about $5 a month. All of this was a lot of money for many families. Even in 1971, many people did not have cable or colour TVs. Cable only came to Winnipeg in 1968. Prior to Grade 1, we had CBWT and CJAY (which became CKY in 1973). The French channel came in fuzzy on rabbit ears as did KCND in Pembina, North Dakota. If they came in at all. To say it was a revolution in 1971 getting colour TV and cable would be to put it bluntly.

As mentioned, we didn't get TV Guide except for fall preview. It really didn't do anything for Canada that wasn't in the newspaper TV listings. By 1969, the Tribune and the Free Press were offering their own TV magazines. The Trib's TV Times was 32 pages. As cable grew across North America, many people looked to the newspapers and magazines to see what what was on TV.

If people got newspapers on Saturdays in the 1970s, they generally got a magazine a week. As it was part of the Southam newspaper chain, the Trib also distributed the Canadian magazine on Saturdays. The Free Press version was the Weekend. The Tribune also put their Saturday comics in magazine form in 1977 and it lasted till 1978. A visit to any friends houses who got newspapers meant seeing a pile of them. I became interested in the nexus between movies, TV and magazines. 

Star Wars came out in 1977 in my last year of elementary school, I had seen a preview in Starlog and had begun reading the Star Wars Marvel comic just before the movie came out. Thus, I was able to be there on opening night and 12 times more that summer for the movie that George Lucas said was aimed at 13 year olds. Like me. Or what age I was less than a year after it came out when I entered junior high.

I did not have the type of budget to get People magazine unless there was something compelling like Star Wars on the cover. The cover below was not even published till nearly three months after the movie became a sensation. I bought this one but alas didn't keep it. I did end up buying many other Star Wars things in 1977 including art, books and the like. I still have them today. But I never kept any of the magazines such as People or Starlog which I regret today.

I was always pretty up to date on current affairs. A kindergarten teacher told my mom that I shouldn't listen to CBC Radio anymore because I was too young to worry about Israel being attacked by surrounding Arab countries. While we had a TV in 1968, it did not factor as much as the radio did and we listened to As it Happens when it first broadcast that year. When we moved to Kingsway, it became a habit to prepare meals with CBC on in the background and through dinner. In 1970, my first year of school, my questions to the teacher on the conflict was no news is good news. My mom took the advice under advisement but the radio stayed on.

The National on CBC started in 1969 but I don't believe I really saw it till 1970 when Lloyd Robertson was the anchor. and we lived on Kingsway. Since the broadcast was at 11 PM, I saw it infrequently as the kids were off to bed much earlier. However, things like church, community club and union meetings often ran till 10:30 PM according to my mom's date book. No lie. There was a reason why the national and local news was so late. It was because 11 PM was the first time parents might be free.

As mentioned, my interest in current affairs was strong. One of the first books I read at the school library that I read was the Battle of Britain. There were so many veterans back then as the war was not even 25 years in the past. The Korean War was a mere 15 or so years past. I was already aware of conflict in Israel and by 1968 was aware of the Vietnam War. In 1972, the series MASH started and lasted 11 seasons surpassing the Korean War by 8 years in duration. All of this meant was that there was a keen interest in the Canadian public in general about the world around them.

This was reflected in the magazine racks at grocery and convenient store checkouts first placing magazines at cash checkouts. In Winnipeg that was in the 1950s and by the late 50s, Canadian magazines like Chatelaine and Maclean's would compete with space with Harper's and Saturday Evening Post. Archie Comics would also be a mainstay at checkout counters.

At 7/Elevens the checkout featured Time, Newsweek and Maclean's along with Rolling Stone right at the counter. On one horrific week, four magazine covers reflected the same tragic event in the same picture.

In 1978 all the newsmagazines including Maclean's, Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report all had the same picture on the cover. Not sure I've seen the same event use the exact same picture ever since. It was very eerie and there it was at every checkout counter at every store in the land.

While young people watched other programs on other stations, ABC was a favourite American channel for many of its programs such as Three's Company, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat and Happy Days. One show, the Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974 on ABC, was both a music show and family show and star David Cassidy was a staple of magazines like Tiger Beat. My sister would often get for Christmas or birthday a Tiger Beat which started in 1965 and would be end up in pasted pics on walls all over North America. The first teen publication was Seventeen and could be found at most newsstands in Winnipeg. Another Cassidy struck fame with an ABC show when in 1977, the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries series starred Shaun Cassidy. This resulted in a new wave of Tiger Beat covers in our home.

Towards the end of the 1970s our family would subscribe at different times to People, Time, Newsweek, Chatelaine, Women's Day and National Geographic. These were the result of subscription deals and the fact the pretty much every kind of the family was working while going to school and could afford both newspapers and magazines. Sundays were free days with work in most retail and businesses closed, a day of rest meant being able to read newspapers, magazines and books. And we did a lot of reading in our family.

In the 1980s, this tradition of various magazines being in the house along with newspapers continued. All through highschool in the first three years of the decade and up till graduation in 1988, we had various news magazines as well as the Beaver and several urban city publications befitting one of my majors in school. The 7/Eleven on Academy Road also carried USA Today and Toronto Star which I often got for a different perspective. USA Today boxes were all over the city. including Academy Road.

I left for Japan in 1989 and survived on Canadian news in greater detail from Maclean's and Free Press that my mom packed in about once every two months care packs. In Japan, I got the Japan Times, Tokyo Weekender and Tokyo Journal for my newspaper and magazine combos. The latter two let me know what things to do and see in Tokyo whether it was shows, sports, theatre and everything in between. I would get an Economist but it would take me a week to read of various train trips or at the office.

Upon return to Canada, I resumed some of magazine subscriptions such as Maclean's and by end of the 1990s our family often had four newspapers in the house. Today, I still love print magazines but digital has allowed me today to enjoy the occasional Atlantic or Vanity Fair issue among many others. And some magazines are entirely digital so I can enjoy them that way too.

Still, all things being equal, I do love a print magazine especially for the pictures which look great on paper. Some magazines have discontinued over recent years including beloved Starlog. Newsweek has moved totally online and by all accounts this has been successful financially for it. One thing I miss over the years are more Manitoba magazines.

Today, I still get a few print magazines a month at home and will likely do so for as long as it is possible. The long form journalism, the great photographs or graphics and the investment in reading something that is not standard news but a deeper look at a subject is always compelling. I have dropped much of social media but it lacks context, nuance and substance. It can be a useful business tool but only insofar as promotion. It can give immediate headlines or links to bigger stories but it isn't a debate most of the time, it is a bun fight. Give me a magazine with something to chew on every day.

The Forks Comeback 2023

Early in the new year, The Forks turned around their numbers for people coming the site to pre-pandemic levels. Measured by trackers at entrances and seen in actual numbers at events, January 2023 looked more like January 2019. Space to gather has been a hallmark of The Forks and key events, unique merchants, special food experiences and tourist attractions makes it different from other areas. Crime scares and protests groups have had an impact but renewed security may be helping. Random attacks cannot be dismissed as overreacting. If people are afraid they will stop going to a place. In fact, they will flee. And the recent occurrence of protest groups using The Forks for gatherings can and has resulted in problems. One of the reasons in the past we have not seen this is that the park area has been that it is intensely busy with festivals, concerts and recreation. Hard to have a protest when so many people are there already for other reasons. Usually celebrating.

The Forks has to walk a fine balance. Their next stage of development announced some time this year will probably be some sort of apartments across from the Human Rights Museum. The risk is that new residents take a dislike to some of the long term activities that have existed for decades such as concerts and festivals. Or perhaps new residents ask that the more than the century railway line be moved once apartments are up. It is not beyond the pale. It may be that new residents ask that the skate board park be removed. Certain we know that fireworks will no longer be part of Forks celebrations. Perhaps they will get an order for them to be stopped at Goldeyes Park as well.

Things evolve to be sure. Assiniboine Park no longer has fireworks and the same applies to The Forks. Tens of thousands used to go to both and stay for the fireworks. Arguments can be made about how it scares animals and annoys a great number of people but, in the case of Assiniboine Park, it means they shut down for the night quite early for activities. In recent years there have been calls to end concerts outdoors as well even if they earlier in the day. If The Forks goes down the same route, it is likely most outdoor activities might be limited due to residential complaints, especially at night.

The parkade at Portage Place continues to be cash injection every year at The Forks, They have at least moved to charge for parking that they do have including their own parkade which for the longest time was free. They have also started renewing leases at more market set rates. Local innovation in food, retail and recreation has differentiated it from a regular mall. Returning revenue into improving the area marks it differently as well since the money isn't sent to investors in Toronto.

The recent offer from True North to buy the land lease and parkade along with the mall at Portage Place looks to net The Forks $34.5 million. They have publicly stated that they would put it in savings and use the interest to fund things. Do the government parties have a say on this windfall? That is a lot of unassigned money.

Sustainability is important because after the last sections are developed, it is unrealistic to think that cash injections from three levels of government will come. There are indications that revenue to support the site and the programming therein is a priority.  That comes from charging for parking they have on site, lease money as landlord of the area and site rentals for festivals. Mandate creep could see The Forks tasked to develop other land but we have see what happen from the North Portage experience. The Forks diverts the money to themselves. In a lot of ways, North Portage would have better staying as a separate entity as revenue would have stayed in the area. The Forks, on the other hand, would have gone bankrupt in 1994.

Winnipeg downtown is not the only place trying to pivot during the pandemic for downtown areas. Toronto has found it very painful and the closure of Nordstrom's in Eaton Centre and many other retailer has hit hard. And like a lot of North America, people are slow to return to the office. Nevertheless it is growing and plans are for 100 new condo towers a year for the next ten years. But will people be working in offices or from home? And what will become of downtown office towers and attractions? Or old neighbourhoods? Below is Toronto in 1989.

In the 1980s through 1990s Toronto was like Winnipeg in that it had football fields of parking space and industrial land/rail yards open. Above from Toronto Archives in 1989 is what Toronto looked like. The area in red was the railyards. In 2023, the entire area is filled with offices, condos/apartments and the like. However, the 1990s were marked by a real estate collapse was pretty widespread across Canada including Toronto and Winnipeg. It really is the last years that Toronto residential towers have exploded so that they literally dwarf the five big banks downtown.

Both Toronto and Winnipeg developed their rail yards and in the case of Toronto, their port. It can be argued which did better. I think Winnipeg did better at creating public space and a sense of centrality to the city that Portage and Main lost or never had, Toronto certainly created big sport and convention centre facilities but in all that rail land, where is the great public space? It is all condos now.

Sometimes being about 20 years behind has helped Winnipeg avoid mistakes other urban areas have committed before us. For example, Calgary demolished its warehouse district. Toronto in a rush to fill waterfront area with condos had insiders grab units and the buildings created a wall of glass and concrete from the shore. At The Forks, development has been slow and thoughtful and each piece has been well considered. Once again, it was money from Portage Place that made it possible not too just fill it with condos.

Developers would love to build in The Forks. There are really only two spaces left but is unlikely a large tower or two that will be built because of the scale. Public and political pressures will limit the height and frown on restricted public access. It will more clear what comes soon enough. Presently, the parking lots are revenue generators so The Forks are not in a rush to see them closed for development that could take two to three years. The question of having public parkades below the new development and/or public transit/active transportation is still being discussed. 

The above picture sourced from The Forks. The Human Rights Museum is a national museum next to a national park. The expectation is that the area will always have school buses, public transit and active transportation to it. Accessible parking, loading zones, tourist parking need to be accounted for. When Railside and Parcel 4 are removed, will they have a public component for a tourist/visitor to park, walk through, get a meal and access The Forks attractions be part of the equation?

Picture from Forks documents. The rail line makes for a walled area for the The Forks and Goldeyes Park. The shaded red area is where announcements will be made in due course of what will go up on the surface parking lots. There is certainly enough parking just outside the rail wall. However, it is beyond the mandate of The Forks so matters of security, accessibility and availability end at Main Street. Why this matters is that should be of high concern to The Forks of how people come to The Forks. Do they avoid it because it is too far away, too unsafe, hard for for those with mobility issues? Is it too expensive? No place to bring a tour bus in? A school bus. No place to have buses waiting? The very long term success of The Forks turns on these questions.

Ironically, the other charge in the North Portage Forks mandate, Portage Place might have a more solid future once it is sold and have more opportunities for future public and private investment. The above picture from Forks documents shows the huge area it covers. And yet other parts of downtown are in need of some sort of planning to help with sustainability.  It is a little bit like whack-a-mole. One area of downtown gets attention only for another are to collapse. Recent example, the closure of the The Bay.

The 2023 comeback for The Forks will have to focus on safety with the large numbers of people that come through. This is not just limited to crime but in terms of crowd control, traffic control, water safety and events that are celebrations of community. It would be a shame if the Forks has to shut out mid-evening for events because of noise concerns. As mentioned, fireworks will just continue somewhere else...like Assiniboia Downs. They just won't be accessible to those without a car.

Sometimes your success causes you to cancel things because of neighbourhood rejection. Things like Days of Wine on Roses were cancelled on Corydon and New Year's celebrations in Osborne Village because business and residents reject them. And so the concern at The Forks is that someone says: no more parades. And maybe that happens as people push to make the area less friendly to those outside their region.

There seems some certainty that in 2023/2024/2025, The Forks will have tens of millions from Portage Place sale. And even without much of a coordinated development plan for downtown, there are a number of projects that will all likely be coming on stream at the same time. Expanded hotels, apartment buildings and office towers are going up within blocks of The Forks. This contributes to more people living and working close to the largest green space by the Red River. Moreover, more traffic on riverwalks/sidewalks, skating paths and biking lanes are a reflection of how close some people are to the area. It doesn't make sense if you live in an apartment in St. Boniface a baseball throw away from a festival in The Forks to drive your car less than several minutes away.

If safety and public access to The Forks remain a priority, it can succeed in attracting people and unique stores, restaurants and festivals. The success of the area going forward should trigger further exciting development in nearby opening spaces. Surface parking lots are a poor use of downtown space. This is why True North chose to develop the former Eaton's parking lot into buildings and a square to enhance the value of their entertainment district. There are 200 parking spaces underground which is about the amount that the same amount occupied by the surface lot.

Winnipeg remains a car city but certain neighbourhoods like Osborne, St. Boniface, parts of Henderson and others make it possible to actually walk to a grocer, bank or pharmacy. That is to say, they are closer and easier to step out of your door and walk to than to get in your car and drive. Even in Brightwater, there are plenty of people who are in walking distance of the grocery store and other amenities.

The Forks is many things but it isn't that neighbourhood described above. If people live across from the Human Rights Museum, The Forks Market nearby is not a full grocery, nor pharmacy or local bank. More of the empty spaces near The Forks will have to be filled with such things or residents will have to head out of the area to patronize them. It isn't likely that a large national grocer will be built on the site but numbers of residents spreading out along Waterfront and two apartments built on Main in the last year means means a place like Winnipeg Square might service nearby residents longer hours and offer more grocery items at their Shoppers Drug Mart.

The real test this year for The Forks will be how they handle summer starting in June. There will be many assessing the safety of large festivals, how Canada Day will be celebrated and if protests and rallies become increasingly part of the public space as a substitute for the Legislature. And most importantly, will attractions becomes less public or require a charge, Will their hours be reduced? Will attractions be pushed out? All eyes will be watching on this. The comeback will only become permanent if the vast majority of people believe we all have ownership in the area.

True North Puts Bid in for Portage Place

Well, here we are again. Portage Place has received an offer locally this time from Jets ownership and the True North partnership.  The price had dropped like a stone. Starlight had offered just under $70 million that included the mall, parkade and skywalks. The mall owned by B.C. developer Spruceland Mall Limited Partnership (formerly Peterson Group and Peter Young) was valued around $22.5 million. The parkade and land lease which is owned by Forks North Portage Partnership around $47 million.

True North has bid $34.5 million for parkade and land lease. A separate deal has to be struck for the mall. It appears a number of groups have already signed off on the deal including The Forks, the province and the feds. A number of social agencies have said the deal should be rejected and the negotiations with First Nations and Metis should be begin. However, in two years no one (and that means no one) has actually stepped forward with any type of proposal till now. There have been wish lists but no actual plan.

The True North Real Estate Development is the lead on the proposal and consultations are allotted a 12 month window. Jim Ludlow, president of the company, has talked about deconstructing the mall, opening it up  and have housing as a component.  He says it won't be a mall anymore. Beyond that, I suppose it is anyone's guess what it will all turn out as. The one thing they have managed thus far is offering money and a timetable. The Forks North Portage agency has said there has be a re-evaluation of the monetary value of the site but they haven't released anything.

Social agencies have said the space should be open 24 hours and have laundry, showers and community space. Others have said affordable housing. A group of interested parties listed a number of things they wanted but no budget was given. It is likely they believed the three levels of government were going to hand over $400 million that Starlight wanted. However, if some of the governments balked at supporting that, they're not likely to going to hand two blocks to someone else with no plan in place or organization behind it.

Governments are more likely to back things like the Mclaren's Hotel's $12 million housing project to covert all the hotel's rooms in to 150 tiny homes with more modern amenities and and supports for under $550. Now that is a real project, with real management with real costs and timetable. It saves an old building and puts home pride behind it.

The Bay has a redevelopment plan coming and affordable housing is being supported there. And that truly is indigenous-led. The Metis have their Portage and Main development, a hotel planned and just finished social housing on Main Street. Treaty 1 has major work on the Kayong site. Is there an indigenous group ready to take over Portage Place with so much on the go already? If there are interested parties, maybe we will hear a counteroffer. However, nothing yet.

Criticism of True North simply to dismiss them does not solve the issue of Portage Place. Not at all. It remains for sale. Put up a workable plan. That is the benchmark for anyone and everyone out there. Don't ask for $400 million and not have any idea what you would do with it. Don't think you won't pay the mall owner and the parkade owner and get Portage Place for a $1. Unlike The Bay, the building is not nearly as distressed as the department store was. There is value there and saying it is worthless is dishonest.

A few critics blamed the Jets for gentrifying the area making the downtown too expensive. Some are still upset the Eaton's building was torn down. Some blame capitalism, colonialism and and a host of other things. This all might be true. But it doesn't offer solutions. Making up a shopping list of fixes if the goals are not achievable or sustainable is an exercise in frustration. Asking for housing where there are units with washers/dryers, dishwashers, two bedrooms+, pet friendly with utilities included for $600 a month may not support the maintenance of the building in the future. Just ask Lion's Place. A real plan is needed.

Truth is we need tens of thousands of units built every year for years to come. The best strategy might be to support renters and buyers directly rather than getting into building government structures. We have already seen the University of Winnipeg develop several buildings with market rate and below market rate rents. It has formed a cluster of apartments all around the art gallery and more are coming.

Speed is of the essence. It can take years upon years to get something approved. And people can be very contrarian. Many say they support more housing but not near them. This was from a 2023 poll in Toronto and is reflective of the whole country. Almost every housing project seems to draw a long zoning debate even if it is adding space to your own home. In recent months, density has been considered a threat. Thirty years ago most older neighbourhoods had more people living in them now and were considered good places to live.

Portage Place mall has been in place for 36 years and has had pads atop east and west and no apartments ever built. They money siphoned off to The Forks since 1994 could have made a difference. But then maybe we would be talking about how The Forks went under. Our large downtown has meant focus on developments is ever shifting. A crisis happens in a new place every decade. The development on north Portage had quite a lot of housing built but those final two spaces remained empty. And cash spent on the parking never went to anything else on north Portage. It is easy to see why disdain for the area grew as nothing was ever re-invested.

From the perspective of True North Real Estate, Portage Place represents a distressed asset across from all of of their developments. The most important part of the mall is the 1000 car parkade. Without it, no deal can be made. The parkade is the jewel in the crown. It makes money. It has always made money. It just doesn't have money go to mall owners. That changes if all of Portage Place is owned by one entity instead of several. I have lots of questions about the $34.5 million of the parkade and land rights sale going to The Forks but will save for another post.

The mall itself has little value but it will have to be paid something to the tune of under $20 million. Portage Place has been for sale for years but it does have some fine tenants like Prairie Theatre Exchange and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, dental offices, phone companies, university offices and Expo Live. But there are too many retail vacancies and the food court is considered is struggling as well.

Some people have said they think True North is nuts to buy Portage Place but the money spent can be made back on the parkade alone. Taken from hints from what Jim Ludlow has said, it is very likely the mall will be broken up with Edmonton Street once again passing through to the other side. It won't be a motorway in the traditional sense. Likely, it will be one lane only with wide sidewalks connecting to the Promenade on the other side. A second floor enclosed skywalk will fulfill the government's request to maintain connectivity all the way to The Bay. However, it also is an important link for the True North's arena to have direct connection to the 1000 indoor parking spaces of Portage Place.

The interesting part will be the west portion of Portage Place. It is the widest section, also has a pad for a tower on it and has the walkway that goes all the way to The Bay which should have a plan announced soon. Is that west section big enough for a future arena? Now I know you are saying...hold on, we have an arena. Yes, we do but we also have two hockey teams. And Winnipeg Ice are looking for a new home. Do we also get a lacrosse team? A basketball team? A women's hockey team? Could we be looking at two arenas? Don't rule it out. 

The entire length of Portage Avenue is important to the vitality of downtown. The entire reason for Portage Place's development was that while south Portage Avenue was vital with stores, north Portage was seeing more vacancies and in some cases, one building burned down and wasn't replaced. There were some bright spots to be sure such as Kennedy Street and some specialty shops but no new investments and a few hotels that were particularly rough.

By 1980, Manitoba was in a deep recession. Huge businesses had shut down. The first of tens of thousands of people were leaving the province, moving headquarters, closing factories and production. It was awful. In 1981, the Core Area Initiative was formed as a three levels of government program to cover a huge amount the inner city with a budget of $196 million over ten years. That is $600 million in today's dollars. Led by Lloyd Axworthy from the federal side, this was the creative force behind housing renewal all over the inner city, The Forks, Portage Place, social programming and private investments from Air Canada, Investor's Group, Cadillac Fairview, small businesses everywhere, The program ended in 1991 and by 1994, The Forks was almost bankrupt. 

A new Winnipeg Development Agreement was made from 1996 to 2001 but it was city-wide and did not carry on with nearly as much money. At $75 million, it went fast and when support ended, some projects began to whither just like The Forks did in 1994 without money from some other revenue sources. From 2001 on most city councillors have been focused on massive infrastructure further and further away from centre of the city. 

Places like Portage Place and North Portage have been stuck. The mall owner doesn't want to invest too much because they can't make the margins that other malls make. And since they didn't own the land, there was far fewer reason to change the building to another function. True North has worked on several building projects both north and south of Portage Avenue. They have been working on indigenous partnerships as a business longer than many companies. They have also been able to leverage money from governments for projects and other private businesses have joined in on the efforts.

The last time North Portage was shown some love tens of millions was spent by other businesses and organization. The criticism of the mall ignores the hundreds of housing units built. It ignores the hotel built, Investors Group moving its headquarters there, the Free Press building being restored to government offices, IBM building offices, Winnipeg's first IMAX, Prairie Theatre Exchange and Air Canada offices. 

It is unlikely that True North will abandon if they take the reins. And they certainly won't transfer future revenue to The Forks like what has been happening since 1994. It will be interesting to see what happens from here but these are no carpetbaggers like the last bunch who came to town to fleece the taxpayers. The Chipmans and True North have added considerably to the employment, tax base and downtown since 2011.

Another Fire on Main Street

At 7 in the morning another building burned to the ground on Main Street. The apartment at 813 Main Street containing eight fully leased suites caught fire and one person was hospitalized. It is the fourth fire in two weeks around the area. The wreckage of Surplus Direct, Top Pro Flooring and Lord Selkirk Furniture is still seen in the next block over.

The fire could have been so much worse with a social housing tower next door. Smoke damage was limited but it had to be scary both for residents and for firefighters. The fire department and emergency workers were good at containing the fire but the total loss of yet another building is alarming. If it was arson like some other fires have been, we have to stop those who are doing it. Past experience has revealed that it is often now as isolated event. If the fire was something faulty, it also shows how dangerous some places are for containing and suppressing fires.

Local residents and firefighters lamented as more and more buildings that had apartments or working businesses are been burned down.  It could reach a point where land is empty for blocks and no one re-builds. In some cases, it already is. If business fear they can't rebuild lest they get burned down, the city and the province will have a worse crisis than they ever thought imaginable.

Manitoba Esports Presents - Canadian Esports Championship Series CECS Live!

Coming back for a second year but a new location, Manitoba Esports Presents - The Canadian Championship Series CECS Live! It will be the at the West End Cultural Centre on Ellice March 18 and 19, 2023. It will open at 11 AM Saturday and be a best of five Valorant series. It ends on Sunday with the championship game.

Sponsored by Encore Global, Shaw Spotlight and Red Bull and our artist and food vendors, CECS is the largest online and Large Area Network event in Manitoba and one of the biggest in Canada.

Tickets are available at manitobaesports.com and at the door starting at $15. Last event saw a lot of kids watching and playing Rocket League and other games on Switch.

Many volunteers will be present to assist players and young people both inside and outside the building and many parents will be present as usual.

Expect that the West End Cultural Centre to be a go to place in the future for computer and console gaming.