City should clean up demolished buildings and bill the property owner, Winnipeg councillor says
Motion by Cindy Gilroy would add costs of cleanup to owners' property tax bills
A Winnipeg councillor wants the city to clean up debris from demolished buildings in cases where a property owner has not done it themselves.
Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy says there are buildings that have been demolished and left to sit for more than six months. These sites, many of them in the inner city, pose health and safety of residents and have a "devastating" impact on the surrounding neighbourhood, she said.
"We really need to act on what we're seeing here in the city," Gilroy said in an interview. "It's having a devastating impact to the community."
She wants the city to remove the debris and add the costs to the owner's property tax bill. That could require a change to the City of Winnipeg Charter, a piece of provincial legislation outlining the city's powers.
If that is not possible, Gilroy said the city should simply do the cleanup itself and absorb the costs.
"We might have to look at a charter change … but I think that a decision might have to be made with the city, whether we just do that work and decide on how we're going to handle that afterwards," Gilroy said.
The cost of the cleaning up a demolition site could range from $10,000 to $20,000, she said.
"It's making our city look unhealthy, unsafe, unkept. And the city's going to have to take a strong stance on this and find the funding in order to make this happen."
Charlene Hodgins has lived in the North End for most of her life. A few doors down from where her mother lives on Stella Avenue, a pile of rubble where a house once stood has been sitting for about two months.
"There's too many places going down and the city can't work as fast as they're coming down," said Hodgins.
"The worst impact that I see is [on] our youth that are going around, and the children."
Mary Burton, another longtime resident of the North End, says there are several demolished buildings within a short distance of the one on Stella near Hodgins' mother's house.
"These are not only eyesores, but they're dangerous for our children, their dangerous for our community, they're dangerous for everybody."
The city has an obligation to keep the streets safe, she said.
"Make the owners pay for the cleanup, make the owners clean it up, find a way to do that. It's not rocket science. it's a no-brainer."
'It's just not fair'
An apartment building at 694 Sherbrook St. burned down in February 2022.
The city ordered the numbered company that owned it to clean it up by Feb. 15, 2023, but due to a dispute between the credit union that holds the mortgage on the property and an insurance company over who is responsible for paying for the cleanup, the pile of rubble remains.
"And in the meantime, residents have to put up with that and it's just not fair," said Gilroy, who represents the ward.
Mayor Scott Gillingham says he supports Gilroy's efforts to speed up the city's processes for dealing with vacant and derelict buildings, and will consider her motion when it comes to council.
"We want to make sure that our communities are safer, they look better, and so removing debris from burned-out buildings faster is something we need to do," he said during a news conference at City Hall.
Gilroy's motion, seconded by Point Douglas Coun. Vivian Santos, will be considered at the next meeting of the community services committee on May 5.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
