Windsor council approves $10.5M Peace Fountain replacement

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Despite coming in at a higher cost than originally budgeted, Windsor council voted on Monday to replace an iconic waterfront landmark that has become a floating tribute to a slain labour leader — this time at a cost of $10.5 million.

In a unanimous decision, city council opted for a lookalike to the Charles Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain, one that will be put in the water at Reaume Park each spring and be barged out in the fall, just as the original was for more than four decades.

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“I know that people are looking forward to the reintroduction of this element down in Reaume Park,” said Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac, who represents the east-end neighbourhood. “They’ve missed the fountain, and I’m looking forward to it coming back with a roar.”

Mayor Drew Dilkens called council’s decision “sensible,” and said he hopes to see the replacement in the water by 2027 at the latest.

“The Peace Fountain is one of those iconic institutions in the City of Windsor,” he told reporters after the meeting. “The public expects us to replace it, and the cost is certainly within reason to the budget that we had set.”

Council agreed more than two years ago to replace the fountain, which had far exceeded its expected lifespan, with a fully winterized model for up to $8.1 million. But the lowest-bidding proponent was so over budget that council voted to scrap negotiations, while never revealing the price tag.

The higher new price was barely part of this week’s council discussion on the project.

The original fountain, the biggest and only international floating fountain in the world, was disconnected and barged to the city’s Lakeview Marina for the last time in the fall of 2023 after 45 years at the Windsor park.

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It has been a memorial to founding CAW Local 444 president Charles Brooks since 1978. Brooks was murdered in January 1977 by a fired Chrysler worker.

“We have conflicts in many areas (of the world) — peace is on a knife edge right now,” George Brooks, son of Charles Brooks, told council on Monday, “We want this Peace Fountain to be a destination, not just a Peace Fountain, but a place where world leaders come.

“It has a fabulous location. We have an international waterway. We have our neighbours, our American friends in the background. This is the ideal place in the world to celebrate peace.”

Brooks said he wants the city to hold an event at the new fountain every Sept. 21 in observance of International Day of Peace, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981.

“I remember my dad saying this to me: ‘A great idea is just a great idea without action.’ We have to take action — let us dare to be the ones that make the world international peace fountain right here in the City of Windsor.”

At the request of labour representatives and Brooks’s family, the word “international” will be added to the fountain’s name, making it the International Charles Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain.

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“We need more Charlie Brookses advocating for peace,” said Ken Lewenza Sr., former national president of the Canadian Auto Workers union.

“I have never seen where violence creates peace. It creates more animosity.

“All of us, we should fight for humanity. We should fight for peace. We should fight for justice.”

The new fountain will have LED lighting and propel water up to 21 metres in the air. Administration had also provided a land-based fountain option — at an estimated cost of $18.8 million — with LED lighting and 137 programmable swivel nozzle jets that would propel water up to 12 metres into the river.

The approved new fountain will be made with parts available in North America, said James Chacko, executive director of parks, facilities, and recreation, making it easier to repair and maintain than its predecessor, which required European replacement parts that were hard to come by.

The city has been working with the Brooks family and the Windsor and District Labour Council on a plan to “memorialize” the original fountain, Chacko said. Fountain components may be used in works of art to honour Brooks and the labour movement in various public locations.

Possible plans for the original fountain will be presented to council at a future meeting.

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