For 16 months, the view from Marshall Wiebe’s back window has featured a massive rubble pile from a business destroyed by fire.
He’s now part of a group of Point Douglas residents calling on the City of Winnipeg to “immediately” clean up the site where Surplus Direct at 843 Main St. burned down on Feb. 11, 2023.
“It’s just a pile of rubble surrounded by a chain-link fence at this point. Sections of that fence (are often being) pulled down by passersby and people load up their own garbage in there. It’s been 16 months and… there’s nothing going on as far as I can tell,” said Wiebe.
JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
Surplus Direct at 843 Main St. burned down on Feb. 11, 2023.
The charred remains of two other businesses destroyed in the same blaze have been removed.
As Wiebe and his neighbours fix fences and plant vegetables in their yards, the resident said it’s frustrating to see no progress on the nearby eyesore.
“As residents, everyone’s doing their part to improve their little patch of the street or the neighbourhood and it’s very discouraging… when we don’t get any response (to clean up this lot),” said Wiebe.
Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said he’d like the city to set aside a budget to clean up rubble piles, arguing the problem is growing worse each year.
“If we don’t have money in the budget, our public service can’t (clean it) … (And) I’d say this is at an emergency level, when we have neighbourhoods with so many of those properties,” said Eadie.
Cheryl Martens, a resident of the Spence neighbourhood, said neighbours counted 63 vacant lots in the area, as of May 30, including the remains of an apartment block that burned down at 694 Sherbrook St. on Feb. 14, 2022.
“I’d like the city to clean up (these sites) and then charge the people who should have cleaned it up,” said Martens.
She said the vacant homes and rubble-filled lots discourage families from moving into or staying in the neighbourhood, underlining the need for the city to act.
The city recently announced it will clear the site of 694 Sherbrook and add the cost to the owner’s property taxes. In an email, city spokesperson Kalen Qually said that work is expected to begin “in the coming weeks.”
Qually said the city’s response to buildings destroyed by fire can vary, partly due to insurance assessment timelines and how quickly the owner responds to city orders to clean up a site.
JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
An apartment block burned down at 694 Sherbrook St. on Feb. 14, 2022.
“Timelines associated with the demolition and remediation of a property following a fire can vary a great deal depending on the actions of the property owner,” he wrote.
Qually noted city remediation is a possible “final resort” and said the city is reviewing options to speed up that process.
The property owner of the former Surplus Direct store says he shares residents’ desire to remove the massive rubble pile as quickly as possible but blames bureaucratic holdups for delaying that work.
“We want that gone… It bothers me every day of my life at this point,” said Robert McDonald.
McDonald said he’s still trying to prove the property doesn’t contain asbestos to get a Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health stop-work order for the site lifted. McDonald said he’s commissioned 54 tests that didn’t find asbestos at the site, while the province told him one of its tests did.
If the province approved a regular demolition, the property owner estimates it would cost him about $600 per truckload to complete, which would soar to $4,000 per truckload for a wet demolition required to remove asbestos.
With about 90 truckloads of material to remove, he said the total cost of a wet demolition is “ridiculous” and unaffordable.
McDonald stressed he is anxious to clean up the site.
“The second we get a green light… the place could be cleaned up in under two weeks,” he said.
A provincial government spokesperson confirmed a stop-work order remains in effect due to the risk of exposure to asbestos.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES
The former Vulcan Iron Works building at 150 Sutherland Ave. caught fire multiple times since July 2023.
“The province takes asbestos management very seriously, as asbestos-linked disease is a leading cause of occupational illness and death,” the spokesperson said, in a written statement.
Meanwhile, a property owner is now cleaning up the site of the former Vulcan Iron Works building at 150 Sutherland Ave., which caught fire multiple times since July 2023.
Mayor Scott Gillingham said the city has taken many steps to try to reduce the number of lots plagued by derelict structures or rubble, such as ramping up security standards for buildings repeatedly set on fire, adding more bylaw enforcement officers and creating new inspection fees.
Gillingham stressed property owners must maintain their properties and not expect the city to take over the work.
“If you own a piece of property, you need to be prepared to deal with all of the costs associated with the property… If we start taking on the cleanup of all of these properties and the asbestos costs associated with it, we’re going to be asking taxpayers (to pay that),” he said.
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter
Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.
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