Manitoba’s Liberal party says it’s time for the provincial government to take the lead to create a fresh food market in downtown Winnipeg to help attract more residents.

After years of failed attempts to attract a major grocery store downtown, it’s time for the province to step in to ensure there are quality food options for downtown residents, Liberal leader Rana Bokhari said.

“One of the biggest impediments to growing our downtown core is the lack of availability of a grocery store,” Bokhari said Friday during a press conference in the Exchange District’s Old Market Square.

A Liberal government would invest up to $20 million to purchase property to create a year-round fresh food market where local producers could sell their products. The enterprise would be owned by government and could be operated as a Crown corporation, said Bokhari. But the plan would be for it to operate without any further government subsidies, she said.

“We know to revitalize the core we need something like that here,” said Bokhari. “The conversation has been happening for over a decade, let’s just do it.”

Proponents of downtown revitalization have long argued that a failure to attract a major grocery store is a barrier to further residential growth in the inner city. There are many small to medium-sized food stores in the downtown. And Family Foods operates a full-service grocery store on Donald Street.

A downtown Grocery Store Feasibility Analysis commissioned by the city of Winnipeg in 2013 found that the square footage space of food stores per capita downtown was above industry standard. Still, the report found the downtown could use one more full-service grocery store and that city hall should consider some form of financial assistance to help attract one. City hall did not act on those recommendations.

Bokhari says if the downtown can’t attract a private sector grocery store than it’s the province’s responsibility to fill in the gap by opening a fresh food market.

“If we can’t make it work in any other way then we will have to do that,” she said. “We have to do it now, we can’t just keep talking about it, we need to take concrete steps to make it happen.”

Bokhari said her preference would be to purchase a heritage building or old warehouse in the Exchange District for the proposed market. But failing that, anywhere else in the downtown would do, she said.

PROMISES MADE

Some of the Liberals’ other election pledges:

Food security for the north

Cost: $25 million/year

Fresh produce and healthy food options like milk are hard to come by in Northern Manitoba — and when they are available can be up to twice the price (as detailed in an MGEU report). So the Liberals’ plan includes subsidies for healthy food options like milk, fresh fruit and vegetables and also sending nutrition counsellors north.

PST off expensive haircuts

$7 million

The NDP made haircuts under $50 PST-free, and the Liberals would expand that to those who wish to spend $50 or more — and if the loss of revenue is $7 million, that’s a lot of Manitobans.

10% of Legislature seats to indigenous Manitobans

No cost

The Liberals have promised to make sure 10% of MLAs are indigenous as part of their proportional representation reforms. Indigenous people make up 16.7% of Manitoba’s population as per the last Statistics Canada data.

Green vehicle rebates

$2 million

The Liberals would start a first-come, first-served rebate for fuel-efficient vehicles — not just electric cars but also smart cars and other efficient vehicles.

tbrodbeck@postmedia.com

@tombrodbeck