Great Trail Donor Pavilion
Forks Market
September 28, 2018
In December 2016, at the request of the Trans Canada Trail, Trails Manitoba began a search for a new
home for The Great Trail Donor Pavilion. Years ago, an earlier iteration of the Pavilion was located in the
Johnson Terminal building at the Forks.
After exploring a half dozen potential locations in the City for a new home for the Pavilion, we concluded
that the premiere location must offer a unique historical and geographic connection that tied into the set-
tlement of Canada, Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg. This new home had to be at a location on the Forks
lands. This site , at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, has played such an important role in
our heritage of settlement in this country. For hundreds of years it has been a pathway travelled by our
Indigenous ancestors. We therefore concluded that it was the logical, if not the only option for a new home
for the Pavilion.
In the Spring of 2017, Scatliff + Millar+ Murray (SMM) provided their assistance in developing concept
renderings for a Visioning Process on what the new home
for Pavilion might look like, in front of The Canadian Mu-
seum for Human Right. SMM helped Trails Manitoba and
the Forks Renewal Corporation to imagine the future
branding possibilities. They concentrated our efforts on
how to recognize the donations of hundreds of Manito-
bans. Manitoba volunteers and funders have given their
time and financial resources over many decades to create
1,555 km of trail in the province!! In Canada, the Great
Trail stretches over 24,000 km!
In Manitoba, the Trail network stretches from High Lake
on the Manitoba/Ontario border to Boggy Creek on the
Saskatchewan border. The Great Trail traverses vast stretches of Canadian Shield, boreal forest, beaches
and Manitoba prairie grasslands across this province. It has been 20 months since we commenced our
search for a new home for The Great Trail Donor Pavilion.
I want to thank Toby Chase, with whom I commenced discussions in December 2016. Thanks go to Cheryl
Oakden and Mike Scatliff of Scatliff + Miller + Murray for their assistance. Lastly, I would like to thank
Parks Canada for allowing the Great Trail Donor Pavilion to be installed on a National Historic site.
Steve Demmings
Executive Director
Annual Report -2018 Year in Review
p.3