Councillor wants construction delayed on stretch of Wellington that may contain Mtis artifacts

A Winnipeg city councillorsays an archeological investigation of a sectionof Wellington Crescent should be completed before a road project on the street is started.

Coun. Kevin Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) made the request Tuesday morning at the city's infrastructure and public works committee.

The councillor says he was contacted by archeologistDavid Riddle, who told him there may significant Mtis artifacts in the ground along the street, and the banks of the nearby Assiniboine River.

CBCNews has reached out to Riddle for comment on why he suspects there could be artifacts on the land.

A section of Wellington Crescent just east of Assinibione Park from DoncasterStreet toGrenfell Boulevard is slated to be moved, as riverbank erosion has threatened both the street and some adjacent sewer and water infrastructure.

The city is doing an assessment to see if there are any items of historical importanceon the site.

A section of the bike path to Assiniboine Park was closed in 2017, after the riverbank failed and cracks in the path made it unsafe for use.

Klein has led opposition to the plan on behalf of residents, who he says have been critical of the city's public engagement process, are uncertain about how it may change traffic patterns, and are worried about a long strip of the street without any traffic calming measures along it.

"It's Mtis land. We acknowledge that we are on the homeland of the Mtis. It deserves, and the people deserve the proper due diligence of archeological study on that land to find artifacts and parts of our history we may not be aware of," Klein said.

Klein says he has contacted the Manitoba Metis Federation so its researchers can look at the land and check MMF's own archives.

The project to move the road and stabilize the riverbank will cost $9.65 million, based ona Class 3 estimate (one with a variance of up to 30 per cent).

Mayor Brian Bowman was asked about the possibility of a historically significant piece of land coming into conflict with a city project, but declined comment Tuesday, saying he didn't know the facts as yet.

"The project can be paused and wait another year and we can do this project properly," Klein said.

City staff told councillors on the infrastructure and public works committee an archeologist has been engaged to do a heritage resource impact assessment of the land.

That work should be completed in the next six weeks and from that the city should be able to determine the next steps.

Options could range from monitoring the site during construction, doing more investigation, doing a full excavation for artifacts or even altering the project design.