(Winnipeg) The Hudson’s Bay Company, North America’s oldest company with roots in Canada’s fur trade and Indigenous peoples, calls the donation of its iconic Winnipeg building to a group First Nations of an act of reconciliation.
Posted at 11:19 a.m.
On Friday, the retailer announced the donation of the huge, nearly century-old limestone building to the Southern Chiefs Organization.
“We are very proud that the Hudson’s Bay Company can help be leaders in reconciliation,” Richard Baker, Governor and Executive Chairman of the 352-year-old company, said in an interview. For many years, the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Indigenous peoples of Canada have cooperated and this is a new time of cooperation and partnership. We shake hands with our former partners and build a relationship for the future. »
Grand Chief Jerry Daniels called the donation a “historic and monumental” step toward reconciliation in Canada.
“The vision is really to create as many opportunities as possible,” he said. We are really focused on economic reconciliation. »
The powerful symbolism of having a colonial store in the hands of Indigenous peoples will be a “beacon of hope”, according to Daniels.
“It will be a place where Indigenous people will come together and work collaboratively to put our children first,” he explained.
A history linked to colonial expansion
The Hudson’s Bay Company, now a holding company with real estate, department stores, and e-commerce operations, began in 1670 as a fur trading business.
Its complex history is closely tied to colonial expansion, as it established a commercial and exploitative monopoly with indigenous peoples.
The fur trade created a dependence on products made in Europe and introduced diseases that devastated the native populations.
Hudson’s Bay also claimed sovereignty over much of the land, which it sold to the Government of Canada after Confederation as part of its retail expansion.
The company’s store in Winnipeg opened in 1926.
“The Hudson’s Bay Company made a lot of money from dispossession in Western Canada,” said Sean Carleton, assistant professor of history and native studies at the University of Manitoba. The downtown store…is kind of a symbol of that. »
A $0 building
The Winnipeg building – one of the company’s “first six” flagship flagship stores – has been in decline for many years.
It received heritage designation in 2019, but an appraisal the same year found the building to be worth $0 due to the large investment required. Hudson’s Bay Company permanently closed the store in 2020.
“Offering a building that is worthless (to Indigenous people) is also somewhat appropriate in terms of what is offered at the end of this process,” Carleton said.
He added that the building has a lot of potential to be transformed into something that meets the needs of the community.
300 affordable housing units
The project’s working title is Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn, which means “it’s visible” in Anishinaabemowin.
The six-story building in downtown Winnipeg will be transformed to include nearly 300 affordable housing units, a daycare, museum, art gallery and restaurants.
There are also plans for a health center that will encompass both Western and traditional medical practices as well as a rooftop garden.
The historic facade of the heritage building will be preserved, while the interior renovation will favor low-carbon materials and the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
It will also become the future home of governance for the chiefs of the southern First Nations, who represent 34 Anishinaabe and Dakota nations.
The extensive renovation is expected to create jobs during the construction phase and significant long-term jobs once the works are complete.
Federal and provincial investments
The federal and Manitoba governments respectively announced investments of $65 million and $35 million on Friday to help create these new affordable housing units.
“By reimagining the iconic Hudson’s Bay Company building in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, the Southern Chiefs Organization is helping to preserve this historic building, while creating nearly 300 homes whose members of the First Nations of southern Manitoba are in great need,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said her government was proud to “support this unprecedented act of reconciliation by working in partnership with the Southern Chiefs Organization and Canada on this housing and this incomparable social project, by and for indigenous peoples”.
The province’s investment will consist of $10 million allocated to the creation of affordable housing, while $25 million will be available through the building fund for the preservation of heritage features.
The federal amount will be a $55 million forgivable loan from the National Housing Strategy. The remaining 10 million will be a low-cost loan.