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Assiniboine Park's Diversity Gardens opening pushed back to 2021

The opening of Canada's Diversity Gardens at Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg has been delayed until 2021. 

The gardens are projected to cost $97.8M, up from $70M

CBC News ·
The tropical biome will feature a six-storey, free-flowing waterfall and pond, as well as a canopy walkway to give guest a bird's-eye view of the space. It's part of the main feature of the Diversity Gardens, The Leaf. (Assiniboine Park Conservancy)

The opening of Canada's Diversity Gardens at Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg has been delayed until 2021. 

The Assiniboine Park Conservancy estimated the project at the southeast corner of the park would be completed at the end of 2020, but president and CEO Margaret Redmond said Tuesday it wouldn't be done until 2021.

"This is later than we had originally hoped, but with a unique project of this nature, we do not want to rush it," she said.

Redmond said the next major milestone is the installation of The Leaf facility's ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) plastic roof over cables, which have been installed, but that's holding up the construction process.

"Our original hope had been to get the ETFE roof installed before this winter, but we've been advised recently that some additional adjustments need to be made to those cables," she said.

"This is a very precise process that is going to take a bit of time, which means we will bump up against Mother Nature."

The roof of The Leaf facility, one of the four components of the Diversity Gardens, is starting to take shape. The Assiniboine Park Conservancy says a plastic roof will be placed over the cables in spring 2020. (John Einarson/CBC)

Redmond added the roof can't be installed accurately in winter months, which means it will need to be installed in spring when the weather warms.

"We don't know the cost of the delays at this point, but we've been advised that the cost of those delays will be carried by whoever is responsible for the delays," she told reporters Tuesday.

An artist rendering of what the lobby will look like at The Leaf as part of Canada's Diversity Gardens. (Assiniboine Park Conservancy)

The Diversity Gardens will cost $97.8 million, Redmond said, with $35 million coming from the federal government, $15 million from the province, $13 million coming from the City of Winnipeg and the remainder, from private donors.

"We have no plans at this point in time to ask the government for any further funding," Redmond said.

Canada's Diversity Gardens is the final of three phases of redevelopment of the park, which began in 2009. The $200 million Assiniboine Park makeover included improvements to the duck pond, the building of the Qualico Centre and the Nature Playground, and the revitalization of the zoo.

Phase 3 involved tearing down the Conservatory, which stood in the park for more than a century and closed at the beginning of April 2018. The gardens are being constructed on the 14-hectare plot that was occupied by the Conservatory.

The Diversity Gardens educational areas will explore human connections with plants and the role that they play in shaping communities. (Assiniboine Park Conservancy)

The gardens will include three outdoor spaces and a space called The Leaf, which will bring visitors through different climates.

The Diversity Gardens were originally projected to cost $70 million.

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