Complete: Manitobans are about to gain access to a historical fort site and it’s not Upper Fort Garry.

The old Fort Ellice site, which governments have been trying to buy for at least four decades, has finally been purchased from private interests and will soon be open to visitors.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is the new title holder of the property near Russell, striking a deal with Arthur and Christine Fouillard, who have owned the land since 1955 and used much of it for pasture for livestock.

The Nature Conservancy will not say how much it paid, but the Free Press has learned the sale price was $1.8 million. That’s for the Fouillards’ entire 1,416 hectares, including some homes and other buildings. The fort site is only a small portion of that. The Fouillard family will maintain leasing rights to some buildings and pasture for a fee, the Nature Conservancy said.

“This has the opportunity to be a showcase for the Nature Conservancy of Canada in Manitoba in terms of conservation, education and research opportunities,” said Winnipegger Ken Mould, whose donation, along with his wife, Sharon, made the deal a reality. Ken, a retired veterinarian, and Sharon, a retired family doctor, donated $265,000 to the sale. The rest of the money came from general grants the Nature Conservancy receives from the provincial and federal governments. The province donates $1.5 million per year.

“It just appealed to us on a number of accounts: Its important history, its songbird population, its attraction physically because of its river valleys. We’re both Saskatchewan natives and have Prairie roots,” said Mould.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Gordon Goldsborough, secretary of the Manitoba Historical Society, who visited the Fort Ellice site last summer. “Fort Ellice is not as well-known as Fort Garry because it was not as busy, but it was a major fur trade post. I think this is important.”

“For us, it’s win-win,” said RM of Ellice Reeve Guy Huberdeau. “We’re going to have total access to a piece of property we wanted to begin with.” Nature Conservancy has offered the municipality the fort site for $1 on a 25-year lease.

The Nature Conservancy’s primary goal is the preservation of a unique ecosystem, said Kevin Teneycke, Brandon-based director for NCC.

The Fort Ellice site is a fusion of sandhill prairie, oak-aspen forest, mixed-grass prairie and aspen parkland. Some endangered species in its ecosystem include the Baird’s sparrow, Sprague’s pipit and chestnut-collared longspur.

However, NCC is well-aware of the site’s historic significance. It has final say over plans being drawn up by the RM for some low-impact development, such as a walking trail and historic markers where buildings were located. The nearby village of St. Lazare also has a Fort Ellice Interpretive Centre.

Fort Ellice was once the main trade and transportation hub between Fort Garry and Fort Edmonton. A regular flow of oxcarts traversed the 427-kilometre trail from Fort Garry to Fort Ellice (Winnipeg’s Ellice Avenue is named after the fort, which in turn is named after Edward Ellice, a British investor in the Hudson’s Bay Company). The first Fort Ellice was built in 1831 and a new fort replaced it in 1862. The Hudson’s Bay Company sold the property into private hands in 1925. The site is on a unique prairie mesa with a sprawling vista overlooking plains where thousands of bison once roamed. It’s also bracketed by the Assiniboine Valley and is near the confluence of the Assiniboine and Qu’Appelle rivers.

The Fouillards fought a bitter expropriation battle with the RM of Ellice in recent years. The RM wanted to preserve and open the 116-hectare fort site to the public. The RM was forced to give up the expropriation when its legal costs — it must pay legal costs for both sides in an expropriation — grew to nearly $350,000 with no end in sight.

There are no remnants of the fort today other than indentations where the fort posts once stood and some historic grave sites. Both Métis and Dakota people consider the place a significant heritage site. Aboriginal and Métis people settled around the fort for the economy it started.

The fort site has potential as another tourist attraction in northwestern Manitoba with nearby Asessippi Ski Hill and the historic row of wooden grain elevators at Inglis. St. Lazare is about 40 kilometres south of Russell. The RM hopes the Fort Ellice site can be open to the public by next summer.

http://www.brandonsun.com/local/fort-ellice-will-welcome-visitors-again-180662741.html?thx=y

If beer and hockey go hand in hand, it might explain the pinch some are feeling as the NHL's labour dispute drags on.

Following a decline in the volume of beer sold in Manitoba last month, Orest Horechko of Winnipeg's Fort Garry Brewing Co. Ltd. says the hockey league's lockout of its players is putting a squeeze on his sales to places where fans gather to drink, watch and cheer.

"Business is down slightly," Horechko, Fort Garry's general manager, told the Winnipeg Sun.

"Business is down because of the sports bars, and things like that. And because of that, our business is down...   ...At Yellow Dog Tavern just north of MTS Centre, manager Greg Ash said his business and beer sales have remained strong this fall without Jets games and the traffic they bring, in large part because of customers he gets before and after shows at nearby Burton Cummings Theatre.

"But it's safe to say that if you had those 41 games and include the pre-season," Ash said, "there's no question — more beer would have been sold."

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/11/25/some-winnipeg-bars-have-tears-in-slow-beer-sales-as-nhl-lockout-drags-on

Manitoba is getting closer to achieving its goal of building up the road system between CentrePort Canada and the American border to U.S. Interstate standards.

On Friday, the province announced its road- and bridge-construction plans for the coming year, including some key Perimeter Highway improvements and the completion of CentrePort Canada Way, a new roadway linking the CentrePort transportation hub on the northwest edge of the city with national and international highways.

Upgrading the Perimeter Highway, which is starting to show its age, is a key to developing CentrePort, a project intended to make Winnipeg an international cargo transportation hub.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/key-upgrades-for-manitoba-roads-180669591.html

Sitting tidy and groomed between Colborne to Dalhousie streets, Harmony Square is a symbol of Brantford's new downtown.

The square is home to year-round events. It holds a skating rink in the winter and a splash pad in the summer.

Built in 2008, the square is a far cry from the downtown Brantford of old. Fifteen years ago, ramshackle buildings lined the main streets and vacancies were so high that film crews used it as the scene of an abandoned town in a horror film.

To hear the city tell the story, this is what a casino can buy — and a vision of what Hamilton could do if it spends its casino money wisely.

Built in 1999, Brantford's OLG Casino earned $112 million last year. Each year, the city gets about $3.4 million, or five per cent of the slot machine revenue.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2012/11/22/hamilton-olg-casino-brantford-downtown.html

Complete: TORONTO -- Higher duty-free limits, lower U.S. prices and a currency near par with the U.S. dollar will lead to at least a 25 per cent increase in lost sales abroad in November and December, said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at the Bank of Montreal. He says Canadians shopping south of the border will help drain $5 billion from Canadian retailers this holiday season.

Six per cent of Canadians are planning a trip to the U.S. for Black Friday deals this year, according to a Harris-Decima survey of 1,004 people conducted Oct. 18 to 21.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/the-5-b-drain-180669311.html

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai announced plans for a huge tourism and retail development including the largest shopping mall in the world, a fresh sign that the glitzy emirate has recovered its commercial ambitions after a crippling corporate debt crisis three years ago.

The development, on the outskirts of Dubai's current downtown area, will include a park 30 percent bigger than Hyde Park in London, said Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, also prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

A retail complex named the "Mall of the World" will be able to host 80 million visitors a year and include over 100 hotel facilities, Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement on Saturday.

A family entertainment centre linked to the mall, developed with Hollywood's Universal Studios, a unit of Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O: Quote), would be designed for 6 million visitors each year.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCABRE8AN0BN20121124

AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine snowmobilers love to have destinations for their wintertime rides, and they are working with the wind power industry on a plan to link perhaps 10 of the state's wind farms with trails in a unique addition to Maine's outdoor tourism menu.

"It's going to take some doing to pull it all together," said Bob Meyers, executive director of the Maine Snowmobile Association. "It's looking very possible."

The snowmobile group, which represents more than 285 clubs, is working with First Wind, TransCanada, Patriot Renewables and other wind power developers on the project to formalize what could be a roughly 600-mile route

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/proposed-600-mile-snowmobile-trail-would-link-up-to-10-maine-wind-farms-seen-as-tourism-boost-180762881.html

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Nov.  '59)

OTTAWA (CP)—Canada's scenery is its greatest asset in attracting and pleasing American tourists, a report compiled by the Canadian government 'travel bureau suggests. Tourists' No. 1 complaint: Road conditions. The report, based on' a broad survey carried out in late September and October, was tabled at the federal-provincial tourist conference by bureau director Alan Field. The travel bureau sent out questionnaires to 137,230 Americans - a "broad sample" of those who had asked earlier in the year for holiday information on Canada. By the end of October, 20,655 of the questionnaires had been returned—a 15-per-cent response. Of those responding 14,737 said they actually visited Canada this year. They formed the basis for the bureau's data. One of the questions asked was: 'What did you like most about your Canadian vacation?" Scenery was the reply in 34.6 per cent of responses. Next came "courtesy" with 15.7 per cent, fishing at eight per cent, and road conditions, at three per cent, another question was: "What did you like least about your Canadian vacation?" Road conditions were the factor most cited —9.2 per cent' of total, responses. Next were rates of exchange, 7.1 per cent;.food,3.1 per cent, and accommodation, three per cent. The report showed that 95.1 percent of those responding found their Canadian vacations very enjoyable or enjoyable. A combined total of 3.3 percent found them a little disappointing or very disappointing. The disappointments were usually attributed to specific situations, such as bad weather, poor fishing during the period of stay, a poor reception.

OTTAWA - Taxpayers are often grudging when they hand over their money to government, but there's a special place where people literally throw cash into Ottawa's coffers.

Wish-makers at the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill toss as much as $6,000 each year into the bubbling fountain that has stood as an informal gathering place for almost half a century.

Toonies, loonies, quarters, dimes and nickels — along with doomed pennies — are regularly pitched through the dancing flames into a brass bucket submerged in the middle of the fountain.

And just as regularly, officially designated coin-scoopers show up to harvest the rain of change, armed with brushes, shovels and buckets.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/rain-of-change-descends-on-parliament-hill-landmark-helping-disabled-180797881.html