North Point Douglas residents call on City to finally get eyesore cleaned up

Article content

Marshall Wiebe does not have far to look to see what remains of a devastating fire 16 months ago that leveled three Main Street businesses. He only needs to look out his back window at what remains.

Article content

“It’s dispiriting to say the least,” said Wiebe, who has lived there for seven years. “As a property owner here and we recently bought the property next door as a rental property, we do what we can to fix up and maintain our own property. We built a new fence, got new shingles and windows and did some landscaping here and there with what money allows and then to look across your back lane and there’s a giant pile of rubble and garbage that’s left there either by the property owner or the City.

“Where’s the accountability is the main issue I would say.”

Wiebe is among residents of North Point Douglas who are calling on the City to get the eyesore cleaned up immediately.

In the early hours of Feb. 11, 2023, three buildings on Main Street were destroyed by fire. Two of the buildings have had the pile of debris from the demolition removed but the former Surplus Direct at 843 Main Street remains as a pile of rubble.

Article content

Article content

“Another issue is that because there’s a pile of rubble there with insecure fencing that gets torn down quite often and is very insecure, people who drive by will bring their own garbage and dump it into this pile of rubble,” said Wiebe, who was forced to evacuate his home while the fire raged across his back lane. “It’s not just the rubble from the original fire, now there’s (more). Garbage attracts garbage is what I’m trying to say.”

A section of fencing surrounding the rubble pile has toppled over, Wiebe said, and has been that way for at least a month. Every once in a while, the City will come and put some plastic strapping around the fencing to prop it back up but “it’s easy just to slice through it with an X-acto knife,” he said. “Any child can get in there, scavengers get in there for scrap metal. It’s not secure and It’s not safe.”

Article content

Wiebe said he hasn’t heard of any plan to remove the rubble once and for all. If he had the chance to make his case to the powers that be at City Hall, his message would be simple.

“I would just say we would appreciate any help in clearing this debris,” he said. “I feel and I think a lot of my neighbours feel the same way that if this debris was in Sage Creek or Whyte Ridge, it wouldn’t even be there for 24 hours, never mind 16 months.”

According to a spokesperson from the City of Winnipeg, demolition is the responsibility of the property owner who typically needs to work through their insurance provider and find available demolition crews to undertake the work. The City has been in communication with the property owner throughout this process and the City was forced to intervene in September to resolve urgent safety concerns about the remaining structure requiring the exterior walls and supporting structure be collapsed into the center of the property.

Article content

“The remaining cleanup of the property is the responsibility of the property owner and they have acquired the necessary permits to conduct that work,” said the spokesperson, noting the City is currently reviewing processes and exploring all avenues available to prevent lengthy demolitions from occurring and to expedite the remediation process.

To Point Douglas community advocate Sel Burrows, the pile of rubble is a symbol of a much deeper problem.

“It’s a symbol of the fact that our City Council doesn’t really care about the inner city,” said Burrows, head of a grassroots community organization, Point Powerline Inc. “If this was somewhere else, it would have gotten moved by now.

“The Mayor is saying it’s all a technical problem of getting permits and such. But the other two owners managed to get it cleaned up. The huge fire on Sutherland (last July) at Vulcan Iron Works is half cleaned up. I went by there today and it’s working. People of Winnipeg deserve better.”

glen.dawkins@kleinmedia.ca

X: @SunGlenDawkins

Article content