Battleford Coun. Doug Laing at council's meeting Monday. Council decided to defer the deadline for proponents to provide a concrete plan to raise funds to help preserve the old St. Vital Church. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

In the chambers

Battleford council extends deadline for supporters to provide plan to save former St. Vital Church

Jan 7, 2020 | 6:02 PM

Battleford lawmakers have given the former St. Vital Church a temporary reprieve so that groups that hoped to preserve the century-old building can come up with a concrete plan to fundraise to preserve it.

At its meeting Monday council agreed to extend the previous Jan. 3 deadline to March 2.

“I think Councillor Pruden and Councillor McLean Tady put it right that nothing can be done this spring anyway,” Mayor Ames Leslie said after the meeting. “So I think it’s very appropriate to give this group the benefit of time to see what they can come forth with to preserve this St. Vital Church.”

He said he hopes supporters can find some funding to save it but if not he believes the March 2 deadline is “a fair ask.”

City CAO John Enns-Wind said in his report that last August council invited community groups to develop a fundraising campaign to help support the cost to undertake the extensive work required to restore the building.

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If no one came forward and no viable plan was in place council would direct administration to begin the process to remove the old St. Vital Church, preserve the parts that can be salvaged, and work with the Oblates to recover the body of the priest buried on the site. It would then be moved to the Oblate’s cemetery.

A Go Fund Me Page created by the Friends of 1883 Church raised only $850 or 1.7 per cent of their $50,000 target to start work on refurbishing the building. The integrity of the structure is at risk.

Enns-Wind said the St. Vital Committee that was interested in making renovations to the building submitted a letter asking council not to remove the historic church, but did not raise adequate funds to begin work to preserve the structure.

He said the committee proposed removing the priest buried in the old church first, but the town was advised the body cannot be removed until after the building risks are addressed since there is asbestos at the site.

Council agreed to administration’s recommendation to postpone the deadline to the March date for the groups to report back to council as a delegation. They must provide a fundraising plan, raise $50,000, based on council’s original resolution, and meet with the town’s structural engineer at the committee’s expense to develop a rehabilitation plan.

“The church is historically significant for a number of reasons including its physical location, its age, and its role in the NWT,” the CAO said. “However, the church has sat vacant with little investment for 36 years. To date there seems little community support to invest [in it]. It seems prudent to give the community one more opportunity.”

The cost to preserve the building is estimated at $500,000 or more as a conservative figure, as indicated in administration’s August 2019 report, due to the poor condition of the structure.

The former church which was built in 1883 is said to be Saskatchewan’s oldest Roman Catholic Church and is listed in the National Trust of Canada’s Top 10 Endangered Places as it is at risk of being demolished. It is also designated a Municipal Heritage Property.

Mayor Leslie said he didn’t have any expectations about what the community groups would be able to raise in time for the Jan. 6 meeting, but was just excited that there are groups in the community trying to do what they can to attempt to preserve the old St. Vital Church.

“It takes a whole community to do it, and it can’t rely just on the town to preserve this church,” Leslie said.

The mayor added if people want to see it survive, they need to step forward and bring forth some ideas on how to be able to preserve it, and “how to raise the money to do it.”

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW