When the people in charge of Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park were in search of a blueprint, they decided to go to school on Central Park. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s in New York.

While using one of the world’s most iconic parks as a model for one in Manitoba might seem absurd, Kevin Hunter, senior director of community engagement at the Assiniboine Park Conservancy (APC), believes it made perfect sense.

“We wanted to make Assiniboine Park the best it can be. We did some visiting with Central Park a couple of years ago. The models are quite similar,” he says.

Hunter describes the progress in Winnipeg’s park since then as nothing less than “monumental.” Officially opened in 1909, the park includes the 700-acre Assiniboine Forest, a sculpture garden, a miniature railway, an outdoor theatre for performing arts and numerous other attractions. A decade ago, something needed to be done, as the park was in decline. The APC was formed in 2008 and, soon after, a plan to overhaul the park was unveiled. The multi-year redevelopment has a budget of $200 million, with more than $130 million already raised.

The element that has drawn the most attention is the redevelopment of the zoo, including the Journey to Churchill, a $90-million project that Hunter says is “the best polar bear and northern species exhibit anywhere in the world.” Since opening in 2011, the exhibit also serves as the International Polar Bear Conservation Centre, which conducts research and education and serves as a rescue facility.

If Manitoba Conservation identifies a polar bear cub in the northern part of the province that has lost its mother and has no chance of survival, the agency notifies the Journey to Churchill. “Now, there’s a place for these cubs to go. Before, the only alternative was for these cubs to die in the wild,” Hunter says. There are seven polar bears roaming the state-of-the-art facility at the zoo, five of which were rescued.

Another highlight in Assiniboine Park is the Nature Playground, which replaced rusty swings and dilapidated sandboxes, and was designed for creative play. “We could have built the province’s greatest play structure; but, instead, we took some time to think about what fits in Assiniboine Park. The venue is breathtaking. It’s great for kids to discover what they want to do rather than swing on this and jump on that. It’s been a huge hit,” Hunter says.

The duck pond, a favourite gathering place for waterfowl in the summer and for skaters in the winter, was doubled in size, too. Adjacent to the pond is the Qualico Family Centre, one of the busiest facilities in town for weddings and other receptions.

The APC is a public/private partnership that receives grants from the City of Winnipeg. When the APC first started, the breakdown was 75% from the City and 25% generated by APC. “That’s flipped,” notes Hunter. “Our job is to generate 75% of our revenue.”

Hunter likes to get creative on that front. As a fundraiser, the APC hosted a race for 14,000 rubber ducks down the Assiniboine River a few years ago. The ducks, however, had other ideas and most of them hopped over the flotation device strung across the river to round them up after they crossed the finish line. “We collected 14,000 ducks by hand, one by one, from the banks of the river for the better part of a week. It was a fun time,” Hunter says with a wink.

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