Push to declare downtown Bay a historic building hits a snag
Procedural mistake sends vote back to lower city council committee
A plan to grant heritage status to The Hudson's Bay Company's six-storey downtown Winnipeg store is going back to the ground floor at city hall.
City council's executive policy committee was poised to vote Tuesday to add the downtown Bay to the city's historical resources list — until Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) revealed a procedural mistake was made at a previous council committee meeting.
Mayes told EPC he voted on the plan at an historical buildings committee meeting on Nov. 22, 2018. He was then advised he should not have taken part in the vote at that committee, which is made up mostly of heritage experts.
It was the first historical buildings committee where Mayes served as the chair. He said he wasn't aware he wasn't supposed to vote at that committee.
Mayes said Tuesday city clerks recommended the plan be stopped for now and be sent back to the historical buildings committee, "out of an abundance of caution."
This effectively means it will be March before city council considers the move, which would protect several aspects of the six-storey structure, which was completed in 1926. Those elements include limestone exterior walls, the outside canopy, the curved elevator lobby and other aspects of the interior.
The company opposes the designation, arguing in a letter it was too costly to maintain the character elements of the downtown Bay.
Manitoba Club decision put off, too
EPC also voted to put off a decision about adding the Manitoba Club, built in 1905 on Broadway, to the historical resources list.
The Manitoba Club — whose members lobbied in favour of building a heritage park to commemorate nearby Upper Fort Garry — opposes the designation. EPC will revisit this property in three weeks.
Winnipeg's historical buildings committee first considered a report about the Manitoba Club in February 2018.
Cindy Tugwell of Heritage Winnipeg told EPC it's ridiculous for council to continue to delay this decision.