City too secretive about location of Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, councillor says

Plans to turn the old Vimy Arena into an addictions recovery centre are too secretive, says a Winnipeg city councillor.

St. Charles Coun. Shaun Dobson says Mayor Brian Bowman and city CAO Doug McNeil have been in discussions for months without consulting the public.

Dobson, whose ward includes the arena, says he was only informed on Sunday that the decommissioned building was being eyed as the spot for the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre.

He says he learned about it when Bowman called him to set up a meeting.

"The secrecy and lack of openness in transparency of our mayor and administration is glaringly apparent and both saddens me and scares me," Dobson said.

"Once again this councillor is being informed in the 11th hour and [with] little time to make a decision. We should never jump into anything without consulting the community."

Bowman disagrees that Dobson and the public were left in the dark, or that anything is moving along quickly.

The city's administration first suggested the Vimy site, which has been sitting vacant for more than three years, for the centre but the city has been waiting on word from the province about partnering on the project.

That happened late last week, which is why the wheels have started rolling, Bowman said, adding that's also why he called Dobson.

"I contacted him on Sunday to make sure he was in the loop on that dialogue," Bowman said, adding that written confirmation from the province didn't come through until this week.

Consultations will happen: Bowman

Dobson is as up-to-date as possible, Bowman said, adding that nothing is going to happen right away.

Reports and public consultations are still needed before anything happens with the site, if anything happens at all. And then council approval would be required before any redevelopment of the arena takes place.

The land would also have to be transferred from the municipality to the province, which would then work with the Bruce Oake Memorial Foundation on the project.

'We're talking about a national opioid crisis … and fixing something in our community that needs help.'- Mayor Brian Bowman

At this point, the Vimy Arena is only an option under consideration, but the recovery centre is a project the mayor highly supports.

"We're talking about a national opioid crisis … and fixing something in our community that needs help. We need more long-term treatment facilities," Bowman said.

"This is the beginning of that dialogue."

The proposed recovery centre is named after Bruce Oake, who died from a drug overdose more than six years ago.

He is the son of veteran Hockey Night in Canada announcer Scott Oake, the Winnipegger behind the effort to open the facility, which will house as many as 50 men for up to five years to recover from addictions.

Oake said he wants to assure people that nothing is set in stone, and his foundation will go through all the appropriate channels to address concerns before the facility opens.

"You know, whether the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre ends up where the Vimy Arena sits or somewhere else, area residents will not have to worry about their safety and in fact, I would submit that if we're talking about replacing a derelict building the area will become even safer," he said.

"I would say that the notion that there's going to be roving gangs of drug addicts terrorizing the neighbourhood is ill- founded. It's quite the contrary. This will be a state-of-the-art facility occupied by men committed to their sobriety."

Oake says there will be plenty of community consultation before anything is built, adding that nothing has been finalized.

If the Vimy site isn't approved, there are others his foundation is considering.