Air Canada Park to get $2.5M facelift, celebrating Indigenous culture

What has become a gathering space for many living in Downtown Winnipeg will soon be getting a major multi-million-dollar makeover, celebrating Indigenous culture.

Ginger Crane-Crowe is among the people who have been staying in Air Canada Park at the corner of Portage Avenue and Carlton Street.

"Ever since my apartment got caught in a house fire, I couldn't find a place right away. It's been hard," she told CTV News.

A past report to the city says the park was constructed in 1981, but in the decades since has seen its infrastructure failing, and has "suffered an unfair reputation as a locus of crime."

It says the space has been increasingly used as an encampment for people experiencing homelessness, with the Downtown Community Safety Partnership reporting a high demand for its addictions support and housing resource connections.

For Crane-Crowe, the park has become a community.

"We know each other here. We talk to each other. It’s a caring place regardless of what the situation is."

Now, the park is getting a $2.5 million facelift later this year as a part of the city's Downtown Recover Strategy.

"We know it’s not going to be one project or one building that is going to make the difference for our downtown to be successful," said Kate Fenske, the CEO of Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, during an announcement at the park on Monday.

"It’s all of these different pieces of the puzzle coming together."

The plans for the future of the park were shared with the community, outlining a vision to include performance and storytelling spaces, seating areas and greenery.

"They want to see more colour in this park - more plants and just something that's going to liven it and bring it to life," said Meaghan Pauls, a landscape architect and community engagement specialist with Scatliff + Miller + Murray.

The proposed redesign for Air Canada Park, released on June 12, 2023. (Source: Scatliff + Miller + Murray)

The project team gathered feedback from park users with the goal of creating a safe cultural outdoor hub.

With the project being supported by the city's Downtown Recovery Strategy, it was also highlighted as a project to advance truth and reconciliation and embrace the park's role as a gathering space.

"When you look at the redesign – representation of the turtle and Turtle Island – it is about celebrating that Indigenous culture and giving us opportunities to move forward together as a community," Fenske said.

Those who frequent Air Canada Park hope the reimagined design remains a space where everybody feels welcome.

"Things will look bright and everybody will be happy," Crane-Crowe said. "Maybe it will be comfortable for everybody else."

Renovations on the park are slated to begin later this summer.