City tees up plan to take over Canoe Club golf course

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/01/2025 (232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg’s public service has recommended the city overtake operations at St. Vital’s Canoe Club golf course after terminating its current lease.

A report to be presented to the property and development committee next week also calls for the city to hire four full-time equivalent and eight seasonal staff for the 2025 golf season.

While the St. Vital golf course land is owned by the city, it is leased to B.S.E. Limited, which operates the nine-hole course at 50 Dunkirk Dr.

The report says Winnipeg Golf Services is “concerned about the current state and future direction of the operation as the condition of the golf course and service level being offered to the public has rapidly declined.”

B.S.E hasn’t paid its 2023 and 2024 property taxes and 2024 rent, the report says.

A notice of lease termination was sent to the tenant Oct. 29.

Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) says he feels vindicated by the recommendation after long advocating for publicly operated greenways.

“Not only are we not privatizing, we’re bringing back in house this course that has never been operated by the city,” Mayes said Friday. “I’m pleased it’s not going to get taken down on my watch.”

In 2013, former mayor Sam Katz and Coun. Russ Wyatt led a drive to privatize four city-operated golf courses — Kildonan Park, Windsor Park, Crescent Drive and Harbour View — through a long-term lease and to sell the John Blumberg course outright.

The vote ultimately failed.

Mayes said privatizing golf courses didn’t make sense then and it doesn’t make sense now.

“I kind of feel like the golf services runs at a profit now. So, let’s keep it going,” he said.

Other options considered for the golf course were: lease the green to another third-party operator, operate the course through a management agreement, allow the land to go fallow or study a repurposing of the land.

Bringing the course’s operations in-house is the most fiscally responsible option, the report says.

A 2025 golf services report estimates city-run golf courses will net $4.6 million in incremental revenue and recovery and cost $3.2 million to operate.

The Canoe Club course needs about $60,000 worth of repairs but the report estimates it will bring in about $614,000 in 2025 and generate a net revenue of $75,000.

A 2021 historical lease list shows B.S.E. leased the space for one year at a cost of $31,500.

The St. Vital course was built in 1918 and was under private operation by the club until 1994 when the lands and buildings were acquired by the city through a tax sale.

The Canoe Club officially closed in 2001. Golf course staff could not be reached for comment Friday.

Mayes said there’s still a possibility the southeast corner of the lot could be turned into a soccer field but, until then, he’s pleased the greenspace will remain a golf course.

“The most economic way of keeping it as green space was to have it as golf. I would love to do more with it in the winter, so maybe that now becomes viable,” he said.

Snowshoeing in the winter and lawn bowling in the summer could be options to increase the property’s use, Mayes said.

In 2017, the city asked Winnipeggers for feedback on the space and whether it should remain a golf course or re-imagined into a different recreational space. The following year, council approved an extension of the lease for the golf course.

The city owns and operates three golf courses — Kildonan Park, Windsor Park and Crescent Drive.

The Assiniboine, Tuxedo, Transcona, Wildewood, St. Boniface and Rossmere courses are leased out for operations.

John Blumberg and Harbour View are on management agreements with the city, which are similar to leases but still have some city involvement for maintenance.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca