One of the things the PAGC hopes to do when it takes possession of the Margo Fournier Centre this fall is provide services to members, including the homeless in the downtown core. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

MARGO FOURNIER

Clock is ticking on Margo Fournier sale

Jul 11, 2022 | 5:35 PM

The City of Prince Albert’s time of owning the Margo Fournier Centre is over and the PAGC’s has begun.

With a final vote on the sale of the Margo Fournier Centre to the Prince Albert Grand Council passing without issue today, it is expected that PAGC will take possession of the building in September.

Councillor Tony Head said that allowing the PAGC to buy the building keeps it in public hands and is hopefully a start to addressing issues of homeless people in the downtown core.

“I believe that the Prince Albert Grand Council’s plan for the building is a huge step forward for all of us because the plan for the building is to do exactly that, it is to address the core of the issue which causes my people to struggle,” he said. Margo Fournier Head

The vote to proceed with the sale passed seven to two, with Charlene Miller and Tara Lennox-Zepp voting against it.

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A proposed amendment by Lennox-Zepp to require the PAGC to sell the building in the future only to another Indigenous government was defeated with the same voting lines.

Lennox-Zepp said that public buildings should remain public.

“Don’t we have a responsibility to consider this motion that this should be remaining within the ownership of Prince Albert Grand Council or a First Nation’s government,” she asked?

When asked, Mitch Holash, the city solicitor, said such a condition would be very unusual but most councillors opposed the concept.

Mayor Greg Dionne spoke against any last-minute changes to the sale agreement.

“I won’t be supporting it because I believe a sale is a sale and we shouldn’t be putting hindrances in at the 11^th hour. We’re here to approve the sale,” he said.

Council first discussed the sale on June 21 and at that time, a large number of seniors attended the meeting out of concern for the future of the Heritage Centre that is part of the building.

Mayor Greg Dionne said the seniors had been given some misinformation about the future of the Heritage Centre if the building was sold but had those fears allayed at the June meeting.

The Margo Fournier Centre costs the city about $100,000 annually to maintain, said Coun. Blake Edwards and the building is underused with one staff member working there.

That person will be moved to another location and be replaced by the PAGC’s Urban Services department, which has multiple plans for programming out of the building.

Some of the things PAGC hopes to offer in the future include social support, open gym nights, social nights for Elders, single parents, families and youth, a transitional shelter for those rehabilitating back into society and a daytime warming/cooling place.

While the Margo Fournier Centre has a gym area, it is not large enough to be used for the type and size of functions that the PAGC held in the recently burned Senator Allan Bird Centre.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com