It was called as the "gingerbread" building, built in Victorian grandeur, and symbolized Winnipeg's coming of age at the end of the 19th century.

The very first Winnipeg City Hall was constructed through the concert aid of the Winnipeg General Hospital in 1876. It was built at a cost of almost $40,000.

The plan for second City Hall appeared in the daily papers on June 16, 1883.However; the whole construction process was surrounded by lots of controversies. Nevertheless, the building was completed in 1886 and was considered a “Victorian fantasy”.

In 1913, the committee of Winnipeg’s City Planning Commission recommended that new civic centre should be made. So, a design contest for the next city hall was held. More that thirty entries were made and submitted. In the end, the first place was taken by the firm of Clemesha and Portnall of Regina. The design was Greek inspired and the structure was to be six stories in height.

One of the Nationalistic Park in Manitoba. Fort Garry was commemorated as the place where treaty #1 was signed between the Ojibwa and Swampy Cree of Manitoba, and the Crown.

Steve Childerhouse (1991)

“I was the bad cop, and Sandy (Hopkins — incoming president) was the good cop,” says Steve

Childerhouse, who admits as Chamber president he was often in “attack mode.”

The memory is painful, but relations with City Hall soured after he was accused of calling the mayor a liar during a rally on the steps of the Legislature. Speaking out against an increase in city council pensions, things got misconstrued when he used the quote “there are lies, damn lies and statistics.”

He remains proud, however, of his efforts to get The Chamber onside in support of Sunday shopping.

“The board had defeated Sunday shopping. They couldn’t make up their minds because of the religious aspect and the day off versus more opportunities for businesses to be available to the public. In my term, they finally said OK, we’ll support it.”

He also got The Chamber involved in CAP-IT, the Coalition Against Perpetually Increasing Taxes.

“It was not just The Chamber complaining about taxes. The Consumers Association, the Manitoba Society of Seniors, the CFIB and maybe one or two other organizations came together to formulate a plan and spoke out in the media. What resulted was a city review looking at business and property taxes. Later, the city froze property taxes.”

Sandy Hopkins (1992)

“Others have told me the biggest impact I had was on the relationship with City Hall. The change of tone, working co-operatively to make Winnipeg a better place to live,” says Sandy Hopkins.

However, he personally cites the role he played with respect to Sunday shopping and the creation of the Bannatyne Fund.

“The Chamber was often working from a position of instinct rather than from solid information. The board needed better intelligence, but it didn’t have the money. We set up the Bannatyne Fund with the idea that we’d fund research projects — one important study per year.”

Hopkins was also instrumental in changing the organizational structure of The Chamber — so the senior staff person became the president.

“There was tremendous resistance from the older presidents, who came out en masse to the AGM, attended by some 200 people. As president, I chaired the meeting. I stepped down from the podium to argue the case. My successor, Terry Cristall, became the first ever board chair.”

Along with that, The Chamber’s year-end changed.

Ironically, it was during his term that The Chamber actively promoted the Jimmy Carter Build for Habitat for Humanity. More than a decade later, he is CEO of Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg.

Terry Cristall  (1993)

When it came to issues, “the big one” for him was Sunday shopping, says Terry Cristall,,

“It was definitely fascinating and somewhat entertaining with so many votes against us at City Hall.”

To try to persuade the powers that be that the public was behind The Chamber on Sunday shopping, an article was put in the newspaper with a ballot to clip and send to The Chamber, he says.

“We got bags and bags of mall coming in just before Christmas. So someone dressed up as Santa, took all the bags and delivered them to City Hall.”

The campaign was successful and in 1994, Sunday shopping was introduced.

On another front, The Chamber opened the doors to businesses in other countries, very aggressively pursuing relationships with countries such as India.

“For me, personally, discovering how much activity was going on in the province — the diversity of economic opportunities — was incredible,” Cristall says. “Mixing in the community and providing service, you start to bond and understand the potential synergies. The best people I’ve n in the world are here, and I’ve traveled a fair bit.”

Hotel Near University of Manitoba

Winnipeg St Vital Long Stay Hotel

Furnasman’s One  Hour Heat and Air

www.famouspeopleofmanitoba.ca

THE MARCH 4 1966 BLIZZARD

The Day Winnipeg was Paralysed

by George Siamandas

I remember that storm–(Dave Sawatzky)
If you are over 40 and have lived in Winnipeg your whole life you likely remember the Blizzard of 1966. It occurred on Mar 4, a Friday and it shut down Winnipeg like it had never been shut down before. The buses stopped running. Snowmobiles took nurses and doctors to work and thousands of people were stuck downtown and slept overnight at Eatons and the Bay.

The winter of early 1966 was the third coldest year of the century, with 1950 and 1917 even colder. January 1966 tied January 1875 for the coldest month since records were kept at Red River. In February 1966 Winnipeg reached -49 the lowest February temperature ever recorded and the second coldest day ever. Winnipeg did not see the temperature go above zero for 90 days. But the year till then was without much snow.

Snow started to fall after midnight on Thursday and despite the heavy snow, on Friday morning March 4, people still went to work. But by mid morning the streets were impassable. The buses were called in by 11:00 am. and would not return to the streets till the next Saturday morning. Schools closed for the Friday and the following Monday as did stores, restaurants and theatres. The big storm piled up 14.6 inches and was driven by winds gusting up to 70 miles an hour. This was the worst winter storm since March 1902. Eight foot high drifts were reported in the new suburb of Westwood. After the cleanup the plows created 12 foot high walls of snow along Ness Ave. Hundreds of cars were reported stranded on the Transcanada Highway. The Grain Exchange did not open for the first time in its 61 year history.

WINNIPEG COPES
Mayor Juba was awakened by a CJOB reporter and told of the blizzard. He was able to make his way to City Hall in his big Cadillac where he set up an emergency headquarters. By afternoon city hall itself had become a shelter for people that could not make their way home. Chief George Blow urged people to stay off the streets
Snowmobiles were given to the police. Volunteers operated snowmobiles to take people to hospital and to deliver drugs to patients. CB radios were used for the first time to create an emergency communications network. Ken Dunston was CBC radio’s man that morning and the station became part of the emergency civil defense network. Unable to get home, CBC staff stayed at the Mall hotel for the night.

STRANDED
The buses were pulled off the streets. Soon those that could not walk home were stuck wherever they were. Thousands of people were stranded at City Hall and at Stores like Eatons and the Bay. And 1600 people were reported stranded at Eatons and the Bay. Eatons looked after 700 of its own staff and 400 customers. The women slept on the 9th floor and the men on the 7th. Fifty hockey players from Winnipeg neighbourhoods were stuck in Lorrette.

Standard Manitoba Hydro Power Line Showing Depth of Snow

POLICE DELIVER NORTH END BABY
Two policemen delivered a baby in the North End. How did they get there? With their own front end loader leading the path. Constables Mills and Const Martin both described as “family men” took instruction from a doctor over the phone and helped mother Mrs Herbstreit with the delivery of her baby boy. An emergency call found a doctor located four streets away who went over finding mother and child to be just fine.
THE AFTERMATH
Only two deaths were attributed to the blizzard. But 14 had died in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Police Chief George Blow said that he was happy that the crooks had stayed home. And of course there was the $1 million cleanup and finding help to pay for it.

WAS THERE A FLOOD?
Fortunately flooding was minor but the trees were two weeks later to leaf out and Winnipeg experienced a later spring. The snow was gone by early April, but there was another big snow, (8.7 “), in April and the snow did not melt till May 5th. For many that spring, it seemed summer would never come.

THE WORST IN WINNIPEG HISTORY?
Actually the 1997 blizzard saw more snow fall 43.2 cm Vs 38.1 cm. Other big snowfalls occurred in 1874 with 16.1 inches and 1893 with 14.8.