"We don't want to see what happened when we closed Southport and Campbell Soup."

That's Manitoba Developmental Centre Repurposing Committee chair Ken Brennan about the need for the MDC to stay top of mind in this coming election.

Ken Brennan (photo by Mike Blume)"There's no threat that the MDC is closing because of the initiative that we're on here," says Brennan. "The issue is the fact that over the last 10 or 15 years, the staff numbers have been decreasing, the patient load has been decreasing. We have that really nice, well-equipped facility up there that's not being utilized to its capabilities."

He notes the group has been communicating with the province for the last five years to see a repurposing of the services of the facility, which could be anything from treating head injuries to addictions. Brennan says there are buildings at the location that have been kept up quite well but are empty.

Brennan says we could see numbers of staff increase instead of shrink.

He explains they'd like to be assured by all parties running in the upcoming election to be on board with the issue. Brennan says they want their commitment to repurposing the services.

"The city of Portage right now is enjoying growth in so many areas, the likes of which we've never seen before in the history of the city," continues Brennan. "We've got growth happening in industry, commercial, and residential places to live. We've got a lot more jobs coming here. The community is responding well, as they should. We're building all over the city. What we don't want to see is what we saw when they closed Southport and when they closed Campbell Soup. We're going to be building toward all of this growth. If we lose MDC, we have a negative loss. The math doesn't work. So, we really need to bring that kind of an idea to the forefront, and say, 'We're investing as we should in the growth of our city. We just do not want to take a big hit with 500 jobs'."