City Hall has created a new agency aimed at revitalizing the downtown, but some councillors say it sounds like a familiar refrain. They're partly right. The council chamber has echoed with this kind of announcement before

In 1999, it's Mayor Glen Murray leading the charge. Eighteen years ago, Mayor Bill Norrie was promoting a similar theme.

That year, Norrie and Lloyd Axworthy created a program called the Core Area Initiative The first of a series of government programs that poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into downtown Winnipeg. Now city council has created CentreVenture, an agency designed to partner with private business.

Despite their reservations, councillors unanimously approved the quarter-million dollar business plan and appointed a board of business people. Included on the board is Winnipeg businessman, David Asper. With the Pan-Am Games on the way this summer, Nancy Klos, an urban studies researcher says the plan just might work.

"The conditions that we have now, the energy that we have, the access to some of the funding that we have, makes this seem to be the right idea at the right time." said Klos.

CentreVenture is supposed to be able to stimulate development by spending seed money. The business plan is likely to include gaining control of the Forks, and the revenue it produces. The next challenge, will be persuading the federal and provincial governments to play ball.