Old brewery not worth saving, says minister

Despite public lobbying, Alberta's culture minister seems disinclined to grant heritage status to parts of the old Calgary Brewery.

Some Inglewood-area residents have been lobbying city and provincial officials to have some of the old brewery buildings given heritage status so that they could be restored. But the minister responsible seemed skeptical on Thursday.

Lindsay Blackett, the provincial minister of culture and community spirit, spent more than an hour on a private tour of the site Thursday morning.

After a first-hand look, Blackett said that while he appreciates there is some historical value in parts of some of the old buildings, there is not enough left to be worth saving.

"To even consider trying to refurbish, that is huge dollars," he said. "Who's going to pay for that? I wouldn't want to impose that on anybody, and I certainly wouldn't expect the taxpayers of Alberta to foot that cost."

Blackett said most of the main parts of the old brewery, particularly the metal-sided towers, are in such poor shape that they should be knocked down simply out of safety concerns.

Blackett said he will get experts to the site as soon as possible to conduct a heritage assessment but he said he would like to see the derelict buildings razed before another heavy snowfall causes more damage.

In May, property owner and developer Ron Mathison applied for a demolition permit, which would allow him to demolish structures occupying about 100,000 square feet of the 500,000-square-foot site because of health and safety concerns. Mathison intends to keep several of the 50- to 100-year-old structures on the property, including the old smokestack.

But the Alberta government has ordered a heritage assessment to determine whether some or all of the buildings should be saved because they may be historically significant.

That puts Mathison's demolition plans on hold until the assessment is complete. But Eileen Stan, a spokesperson for the developer, said it is encouraging that the minister has had a first-hand look for himself.

"It's encouraging that he recognizes the extent of the problems and doesn't want to delay [demolition] just for the sake of debate," she said.