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Winnipeg’s inner city is plagued with hundreds of derelict buildings and demolition sites their owners can’t or won’t clean up.

Despite the threat they pose the city is reluctant to do the job itself.  

A recent City of Winnipeg report says it would cost too much to take over the cleanup.

Residents and councillors, on the other hand, say the city should roll up its sleeves and remove post-demolition rubble if the owner hasn’t already done so. 

In Winnipeg, the owners of vacant buildings that have been demolished or that are subject to demolition are responsible for cleaning up the mess.

If they don’t comply, the city can take on the demolition and remediation and the cost is added to the owners’ property tax bill.

The report says it wouldn’t be worth it to invest in the equipment and staff needed for the city to do the cleanups.

The main reason for the delay in cleaning up these properties is the seasonality of the work, says the report.

Because most properties are full of asbestos, they require “wet remediation” before they are removed.

Manitoba’s Workplace Safety and Health Act requires the rubble to be misted to prevent cancer-causing asbestos particulates from circulating.

Because of the province’s cold winters, the wet-work can be done only in the few months from late spring until the end of fall.

The report says since the work is highly specialized and seasonal in nature, it would not be “economically feasible” for the city to invest hundreds of thousands dollars in equipment and increase staff for only periodic use.

“The pre-qualification of several contractors means the city has ready access to many resources to conduct this work,” the report says.

Coun. Cindy Gilroy, who represents the west-central Daniel McIntyre ward, says the report is “insufficient,” and that Winnipeg needs to find ways to expedite rubble cleanup.

Gilroy says she’d like to see a detailed breakdown of the costs of the different removal methods the city has at its disposal.

For example, she says, there might be a way for the city to pay for the cost of removing a demolished or derelict property up-front from its tipping fees (fees paid by to dispose of waste in a landfill).

Because it is mostly the inner city that is bedeviled with the problem, it appears the city is ignoring those communities, she says.

Gilroy says there are about 800 vacant buildings and demolition sites, many of which are located in her Daniel McIntyre ward.

Some of these abandoned buildings and what is left of them catch fire, and there have been more fires recently.

Between January and November 2023 there were 125 fires in vacant buildings, most of them caused by homeless people looking for shelter and warmth.

“Winnipeg has a big stock of old housing, some of which has become or is in danger of becoming derelict,” says Gilroy. “When it does become derelict, it needs to be torn down and hauled off immediately, but that doesn’t always happen.”

Gilroy says the city has been making an effort to improve the situation. It has been working with homeowners to streamline the process to apply for and receive demolition permits.

The city also wants to find out if it can clean up rubble immediately after a building has been destroyed by fire and met the wrecking ball.

The fire department is already allowed to carry out emergency demolitions of properties left structurally unsound by fire.

The city wants to find out if provincial rules can be changed to let crews clear the lots of all debris at the same time.

Not far from Gilroy’s ward, Coun. Ross Eadie says there are “a heck of a lot of vacant properties and demolition sites” in his north end Mynarski ward.

“There are almost 300 vacant and derelict buildings in Mynarski that need to be either refurbished so that people can live in them, or demolished and the wreckage carried away,” says Eadie.

He says the city also needs to offer better carrots so that owners will have the financial incentive to restore their dilapidated buildings.

“Rehabilitated buildings are worth more, so the city will get back more in property taxes,” says Eadie.

Eadie and Gilroy are calling for government to put more money into addressing the problem.

They want to see a tri-level agreement between Winnipeg, Manitoba and the federal government to remove demolished and derelict buildings and rehabilitate those that can be saved.

“If they’re fixed up and made livable again, they buildings could add to the housing stock the city needs,” says Eadie.