The Peace Officers Memorial Foundation, the Firefighters Foundation and the Workers Foundation joined forces last month to outline plans for a new three-monument memorial to honor and recognize their fallen comrades. Among those attending the event were Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger and Steve Ashton, Manitoba's Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation.
Robert Belanger, President of the Peace officers Memorial Foundation, Alex Forrest, President of Fire Fighters Foundation and Larry Pelzer, President of the Workers Foundation together released the following statement at the event on September 20.
"We are pleased to join together to move this project forward. This memorial will pay tribute to our brothers and sisters who lost their lives while on the job. This will give their families a place to gather and remember them while at the same time giving Manitobans a place to pay their respects and say thank-you.
"This memorial has been a vision of our organizations for some time, and we have to give credit to Greg Selinger and his government for standing along-side us and driving this initiative. It was this government that created legislation in 2007 establishing an act giving our foundations the authority to raise funds for the memorial - for its design, location, and maintenance.
"Remembering and honoring those who gave the ultimate sacrifice is our way of paying tribute to them. As Manitobans we must show that their selflessness does not go unnoticed."
Design, cost and construction timelines are in the very early development stages. However, all organizations are committed to working together with the provincial government to work as quickly as possible to build the monuments.