In 1913 the City of Edmonton paid the Hudson's Bay Company $310,000 for 155 acres that include today's Victoria Park. Part of the "City Beautiful" plan at the time. The City now ascribes to little of this noble goal, with freeways and parking lots blighting much of the city.
The HBC had gotten the land for free as part of settlement when its rights in Rupert's land were bought out by the British government. Holding the land empty as the city had grown around it, the HBC merely cashed in on others' hard work.
It could be that this massive payment -- $300,000 was alot of money back then -- all going to HBC head office outside Alberta -- might have helped to start the City into the WWI slump that it experienced.
Meanwhile it has been pointed out that the HBC was owed nothing for giving up its rights - it had not fulfilled its side of the agreement which included encouraging settlement.
Another broken clause called on it to defend the region from encroachment. The stone fort at Prince of Wales on the Hudsons Bay was a noteworthy - but miniscule -attempt to protect the old North-West stretching form Oregon to the Arctic Ocean from invasion.
Thanks for reading.
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