With the lack of public space dedicated to the memories of fallen Canadian soldiers, the Estevan branch of the Royal Canadian Legion presented the concept for a new memorial park to City Council on Dec. 29.
“The plan is to name the park the Royal Heights Veterans Memorial Park,” said Estevan Royal Canadian Legion president Troy LeBlanc in an interview with the Mercury. “It will be the location of the Wall of Honour for all of the WWI, WWII veterans of Estevan and surrounding area.”
The wall, which hasn’t been approved by Council, is a project spearheaded by Legion member Lyle Dukart.
A mural will be created by students from Estevan Comprehensive School and placed inside the park’s existing gazebo. It will honour WWI, WWII, Korean War, Gulf War and Afghan War veterans. The cenotaph, which currently sits on the Estevan courthouse lawn, will remain put.
“The cenotaph is not being moved due to structural integrity. It would not survive the trip,” LeBlanc said.
The initial plans for the project got underway early on during LeBlanc’s tenure as the Legion’s president.
“This was kind of my pet project,” he said.
“I wanted to do more for our veterans. I looked around and Estevan doesn’t have a memorial park for veterans,” he noted, adding the Legion and the cenotaph are the only structures dedicated to veterans.
The original plan was to put the Wall of Honour next to the cenotaph. The lack of knowledge surrounding the actual owner of the property where the cenotaph is situated, resulted in a change of plans.
“We couldn’t get permission to set it up there,” LeBlanc said. “Instead of fighting we came up with the idea of the park.”
He also said the plans presented to council were positively met.
“They seemed to be all in favour,” said the Legion president. “We have been working with the leisure services board and City Council, of course, to get this under way.”
He hopes to have the signage built and approved as soon as possible, with the actual renaming of the park to occur sometime in early spring this year.
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This story was updated on Jan. 16 with clarifications surrounding the plans for the Wall of Honour and the murals for the gazebo at Royal Heights Park.
