FAQs

Downtown is a vast area that covers 3.23 square kilometers and slightly less than one percent (.7%) of the land area of Winnipeg. 

Check out the interactive Downtown map to see the Downtown cycling network, trees, recreation and leisure facilities, parks, and more. Check out the Downtown area map to get an overview of the areas within Downtown:

• Broadway-Assiniboine
• Central Park 
• Chinatown 
• Exchange District
• South Portage
• The Forks
  
  

Winnipeg’s Downtown is the economic and cultural heart of our city. Downtown has the highest concentration of employment and is our central hub for innovation and creativity. When Downtown Winnipeg thrives, all of Winnipeg thrives. Over the last decade our Downtown has made significant strides to create a lively and dynamic place for people to live and visit. We want to ensure the pandemic doesn’t threaten the significant progress that we’ve made.  

CentrePlan 2050 will provide the roadmap for the future of our Downtown. It will help set our corporate priorities and actions. It will also ensure ongoing community dialogue with our civic and community partners.

To help support this work, the project team reviewed previous Downtown studies and strategies, and will engage with residents who live, work, and visit the Downtown, as well as community stakeholders, including local businesses, property owners, and service providers, among various others.

Input from the public will help shape what Downtown will look like, from our streets and buildings to our parks and open spaces, and how we get around.

CentrePlan 2050 will build on the progress and plans already taking place in our Downtown. Downtown stakeholders are currently investing in exciting projects that will help move us toward the goal of having more people visiting and living in Downtown Winnipeg.

 Development and revitalization projects currently underway are helping green our Downtown and creating safe and accessible public spaces. CentrePlan 2050 can help in the coordination of future investment and development, so they complement these projects and build on the key themes highlighted in the plan.

Examples of key Downtown projects include the Market Lands development, revitalization of Air Canada Window Park, Central Park enhancements, and the redevelopment of Odeon Park by Burton Cummings Theatre.

Achieving community safety and well-being requires long-term collaboration that addresses the needs of residents. Improving safety is not achieved through any single initiative and requires social development and crime prevention in addition to incident response. 

The City supports or leads the following community safety and well-being services and initiatives:

• Funding provided to: 24/7 Safe Spaces, Mobile Outreach Support Services, Community centres, Community organizations, End Homelessness Winnipeg, Downtown Community Safety Partnership, Emergency Shelters 
• Crisis response: Emergency Paramedics in the Community (EPIC) and Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis (ARCC)
• Winnipeg Police Service
• Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service
• Development of a Community Safety, Wellbeing and Crime Prevention Action Plan
• Winnipeg Safe City Initiative 
• Transit Community Safety Officers (Transit Security Initiative)
• Gun and gang violence prevention programs and services 
• Public washroom and water access: this includes water fountains and water stations, and through the 'Places to Go' framework, a permanent public washroom called Amoowigamig, and temporary washrooms.
• Winnipeg Committee for Safety 

In Phase 1 of public engagement, you can provide input in many ways, on topics that you are interested in. Engagement opportunities include a public open house, online surveys, ideas board, and mapping tools – each tailored to one of the five themes of CentrePlan 2050:

• Living & visiting Downtown
• Greening Downtown
• Getting around Downtown
• Building Downtown
• Re-imagining Graham Avenue

The budget to develop CentrePlan 2050 is $500,000. As part of this project, we will be creating Downtown Urban Design Guidelines, a Streetscape Design Standards Manual, a design of key Downtown Bike Routes, and design of Graham Avenue.

There will be three phases of project planning, design, and public engagement for this project. Phase 1 will take place until summer 2023. Phase 2 will commence once phase 1 is complete. Completion of this project is anticipated in summer 2024.

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