'You just can't': Heritage Festival not happy with planned 3-year closure of Hawrelak
The leader of Edmonton's Heritage Festival is pushing back against a city plan to close Hawrelak Park for three years for a massive rebuild.
The $65 million project was initially pitched as a 10-year-rehabilitation project, but festival executive director Jim Gibbon said the new plan is a complete construction closure starting in 2023.
"There's a fair bit of work. But all of it could be done small and piecemeal without shutting down the park. It's the shutting down the park bit that I don't get," Gibbon said Wednesday.
The city's plans include dredging the lake to improve water quality, upgrading picnic sites to make them more accessible, replacing the playground and adding lighting for security.
Crews will also renovate the pavilion, boathouse, washrooms and service yard.
Paths will be added and roads will be rebuilt and repaved and bicycle parking will be added.
The Heritage Amphitheatre will also be updated including new washrooms, lighting and a reconfigured green room. Crews will inspect the seats to see if they need to be fixed or replaced.
About 47 per cent of the work will be on underground utilities, the city's project page said.
Coun. Andrew Knack sympathized with Gibbon and other festival operators and called the park a "critical space in the heart of our city."
He added that city staff plan to tour the site with event organizers to explain, but Knack worries a lengthy closure is unavoidable.
"I don't want to see the festivals and events shut down, I'm sure our city staff don't. So if there's ways to do it, then we would have done it, but it doesn't sound like there's a way to do it, which is really too bad," he said.
BORDEN PARK WILL NOT WORK: GIBBON
Gibbon said the city is recommending he move the festival to Borden Park.
But because it's smaller and full of trees, Gibbon said they'd have to slash the amount of pavilions and people who could attend by about half.
"You can't put Heritage Fest there. You just can't."
The festival has been in Hawrelak since 1976. Gibbon said not even the deadly 1987 Black Friday tornado stopped it.
"The tornado hit the Friday with all our tents set up, destroyed everything. Saturday the city, the province and Heritage Fest got together and rebuilt the entire event and we were up and running Sunday. We did it together," Gibbon said.
Gibbon agreed the park needs work, but he worries a closure will force the festival to move permanently.
"There's a history in this city of three-year plans becoming four-year plans," he said.
He's now appealing to city leaders to rethink the closure, and he said his organization will do whatever it can to help keep Hawrelak open.
"If we can just work together with the city, we can stay in our beloved park."
Heritage Festival 2022 is planned to run as normal from July 30 to Aug. 1. About 400,000 attend the festival each year.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Ottawa injects another $36M into vaccine injury compensation fund
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
'Secret report' or standard research? B.C. government addresses safe supply allegations
B.C.’s premier and one of his top lieutenants are pushing back against allegations by the Official Opposition that he covertly commissioned a report into the diversion of safe supply drugs onto the streets.
Video shows suspects waving weapons, smashing glass in Toronto jewelry store robbery
Arrests have been made after five men were captured on video rampaging through a jewelry store in Toronto, waving weapons and smashing glass display cases.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
She was too sick for a traditional transplant. So she received a pig kidney and a heart pump
Doctors have transplanted a pig kidney into a New Jersey woman who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart.
What Canadians think of the latest Liberal budget
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
opinion Why you should protect your investments by naming a trusted contact person
Appointing a trusted person to help with financial obligations can give you peace of mind. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew outlines the key benefits of naming a confidant to take over your financial responsibilities, if the need ever arises.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
Teacher shortages see some Ontario high school students awarded perfect grades on midterm exams
Students at a high school in York Region have been awarded perfect marks on their midterm exams in three subjects – not because of their academic performances however, but because they had no teacher.