WW I memorial moving to Brookside Cemetery to make room for Portage and Main reopening

A prominent Winnipeg war monument will be moved to make way for work to reopen the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street to pedestrian foot traffic.

The statue depicting the figure of a Canadian First World War soldier has stood outside the former Bank of Montreal Building at Portage and Main since 1923. It honours the 231 Bank of Montreal employees who died in the war.

The Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) acquired the statue when it bought the building on the southeast corner of Portage and Main.

The city plans to remove the barricades and reopen the intersection to pedestrians by July 1 next year. The monument must be moved in order for that work.

"It's currently halfway in the right of way and halfway on the BMO property," Gordon Chappell, real estate manager with the city, told the property and development committee on Thursday.

"It was originally relocated when the [underground] concourse was constructed. With the reopening of Portage and Main, there isn't sufficient room to have pedestrians cross and have the monument in place."

A city report states the MMF has agreed to give the statue to the city as a gift, including covering the costs of relocation. The committee voted unanimously in favour of moving monument.

It will be moved to the Field of Honour in Brookside Cemetery, which was created for the internment of veterans returning from the war. 

Gordon Goldsborough, head researcher with the Manitoba Historical Society, told CBC News he thinks the move makes sense.

"Given that the connection between the statue and the building behind it has been changed, in as much as the bank is no longer there, and it's going to be turned into the Métis Heritage Centre, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for it to remain where it is," he said.

The city says it consulted with the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Canadian Legion of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario on the relocation plan.