Canada 150 celebrations to shave a sliver off Winnipeg's spending plans

Canada's 150th anniversarywill allow the City of Winnipeg toshave $425,000 off its spending this year.

On Wednesday, Mayor Brian Bowman's inner circle will consider a report to formalize federal spending on six capital projects in Winnipeg as part of the Canada 150 celebrations.

One of the projects is the $1-million spray pad at the Old Exhibition site in the North End. Pending council approval, Ottawa will now pick up $425,000 of the tab. The city plans to reduce its capital spending by the same amount, according to a report to executive policy committee.

• Canada is celebrating 150 years of what, exactly?

The federal government is also topping up a Valley Gardens spray pad project by $250,000, taking the budget up to $850,000.

Ottawa is also $500,000 on Seven Oaks Pool renovations and a total of $300,000 on three other recreation facilities as part of Canada's sesquicentennial celebrations.

Conciliatorto assist CUPE 500 talks

The City of Winnipeg has called in a conciliator to help reach a labour agreement with its largest union.

Winnipeg and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500, which represents 5,070 city workers, have been bargaining since January. The last CUPE500 contract expired in December.

• Winnipeg enters whirlwind of labour negotiations

CUPE500 president Gord Delbridge said the city requested a conciliator and both sides have agreed to continue talking.

Conciliators do not have the power to compel either side to accept an agreement.

Siloam Mission faces heritage designation

Winnipeg may givethe building that houses Siloam Mission a heritage designation.

Council's property and development committee will consider a report recommending heritage status for the Canadian Fairbanks-Morse Company Warehouse, a concrete-and-brick structure that's stood on Princess Street since 1911.

Siloam Mission moved into the premises in 2005 and opposed the heritage designation, which it sees as an obstacle to its $14-million expansion.

• Siloam Mission scales back expansion plans after funding fails to materialize

"We are concerned that designating the building as a heritage building would make the cost of the project untenable," a representative for the shelter wrote to the city in 2015, when Siloam had a more ambitious, $31-million expansion plan.

In a report to council, heritage planner Rina Riccisays the structure isgood example of an intactearly 20th-Century Winnipeg warehouse designedin the Romanesque Revival style, one of only five known Winnipeg structures designed by Montrealarchitects Brown and Vallance andan integral part of the Princess Street streetscape.