Today, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on the former Kapyong Barracks, heralding a development project that will see the land transformed into Canada's largest urban reserve.
Typically, reserves are located far from urban areas and lack the infrastructure to have commercial development take place, Daniels explained. The concept of an urban reserve allows First Nations to use land within a city to develop for commercial purposes and generate revenue for their community, he said. So a lot of the profits that are generated on the site will go back to the seven Treaty 1 nations to prosper economically and socially, he said.
Kapyong was mostly abandoned in 2004, when the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia s Canadian Light Infantry moved from the military barracks to the Canadian Forces Base in Shilo, Man., located about 180 kilometres west of Winnipeg.