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This article was published 28/2/2015 (2031 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries (MLL) is displaying good corporate citizenship in its decision to consolidate operations in downtown Winnipeg.

The Crown corporation should ignore the negative nabobs who think government workers belong in the cheapest space available, preferably on the edge of the city. Of course if the downtown had been declared a government-free zone, the area today would resemble a post-apocalyptic dystopia.

Some of the twenty vendors set up Thursday for the first day of the Downtown Winnipeg Farmers' Market in the Manitoba Hydro Place Plaza at the corner of Graham Ave. and Edmonton St. Items for sale include vegetables, baked goods, art work, clothing, bison, rainbow trout,chicken and lamb. The weekly market is on Thursdays and runs till Sept. 5 at 11:30A.M.-5:30P.M. Wayne Glowacki/Winnipeg Free Press July 4 2013

The three levels of government have always played critical roles in downtown stability and revitalization, not just in Winnipeg, but across the country.

Even booming cities such as Vancouver and Toronto with dynamic downtowns have needed the public sector to succeed. In Toronto, governments have invested billions of dollars in the waterfront area alone, while Vancouver's Chinatown and Downtown Eastside have both relied on help from taxpayers to overcome challenges too big for the private sector alone.

So let's get over this idea Winnipeg is unique in this regard. Sometimes governments are part of the solution, particularly on issues of urban renewal.

The Manitoba government is the largest single tenant in the downtown, and several heritage buildings would be struggling for survival today if it wasn't for long-term government leases developers literally take to the bank.

These same developers, however, like to complain whenever the public sector says it can't help with their pet projects, or when they sense -- wrongly and unfairly -- the deck is stacked against them.

That's the case with the Liquor & Lotteries request for up to 80,000 square feet of space to accommodate 450 employees. The winning bidder must be located in or near the downtown, and preferably close to the skywalk system, which leaves out every desperate developer or owner of an empty building outside the downtown.

There's also quiet grumbling that True North Sports & Entertainment has the inside track for the Liquor & Lotteries contract. The owners of the MTS Centre have proposed a multi-building complex, including a hotel, south of the MTS Centre.

True North's proposal is dazzling, and it would leverage some $400 million in direct investment, in addition to significant spinoffs. There is no evidence, however, MLL predetermined what it would do before all the bids were submitted. Such a decision, in fact, would be illegal.

The Crown corporation is obliged to judge the nine proposals it received on their merits. And one factor it will undoubtedly consider is which proponent can deliver the biggest bang for the buck.

It is not obliged to go with the cheapest bid or with any proposal, if there is one, to move into the Bay, where the lights are in danger of going out. The MLL contract would only fill one floor of the massive department store, hardly an inspiring expansion. If it leveraged a larger development in the landmark heritage building, however, that could be a different story.

Conservative Leader Brian Pallister hasn't said much about the process so far, but he would be wise to avoid trying to score political points on the corporation's decision to consolidate its operations downtown.

The Conservatives were on the wrong side of history when they questioned public support for the MTS Centre, and they don't want to make the same mistake again.

Mr. Pallister is struggling to build credentials as a progressive, urban-oriented leader. Opposition to a plan that will contribute to a more exciting and viable downtown will hardly help his cause.

Except for the penny-pinchers and the usual doom-and-gloom crowd, most Winnipeggers should welcome any investment that will contribute to creating the downtown we want and need.