Saskatoon city committee dashes efforts to designate Marquis Downs as a heritage site
In an effort to keep the horse racing track in Saskatoon, a Saskatchewan-based jockey made a bid to a city committee to designate Marquis Downs as a heritage site.
"Horse racing is more than just entertainment,” said Nicole Hein. “It represents 150 years of hard work.”
Hein and a handful of others made a pitch to the city’s standing policy committee on planning, development and community services to look into preserving the history of Marquis Downs with a heritage designation.
Under a heritage designation, the owner would be required to maintain the property and must have civic approval to alter the heritage elements of the property according to the City of Saskatoon.
Hein said the heritage designation would help preserve Saskatchewan’s only equine racing track and keep jobs.
Councillor Darren Hill put forward a motion to the committee asking the committee to consider handing over Hein’s request for heritage designation to the Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee (MHAC) for further consideration. Hill’s motion was defeated.
While disappointed with the result Hein said the city should look at exploring the option of preserving Marquis Downs.
“In this case, the city has decided to sever a very real tie to our collective history in the face of a viable opportunity to preserve it as a living legacy to our agricultural heritage,” Hein said in an email to CTV News. “What a shame.”
In February Prairieland Park announced it was axing the 2021 racing season because of the deepening COVID-19 pandemic, the second year in a row Prairieland has cancelled the horse racing season.
A month later, Prairieland Park announced it was exploring the option of bringing a soccer team to Saskatoon with the formation of the Canadian Premier League (CPL). A partnership with Living Sky Sports and Entertainment is looking at a stadium for a Saskatoon CPL franchise that would replace Marquis Downs.
New track could spare industry
Last month Moosoomin First Nation announced its intentions to save the Saskatchewan horse racing industry with the development of a new horse-race track just northwest of Saskatoon.
According to the First Nation, Moosomin Downs would consist of 124 acres of land northwest of the city near Highway 16, in the Rural Municipality of Corman Park.
The First Nation, in partnership with Moosomin First Nation Economic Development Corporation, is now looking for partners to help fund the $40 million project. Organizers told CTV News Moosoomin Downs is expected to be completed in the fall of 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
Investigators have finally revealed the identity of an unknown victim nicknamed 'Midtown Jane Doe,' who was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City two decades ago.