Councillor pushing for demolition of vacant buildings

Another city councillor is hoping to put pressure on the city to both demolish and clean up vacant buildings destroyed by fire, at the expense of the property owner.

St. James councillor Shawn Dobson will bring forward a motion at Friday’s Assiniboia community committee meeting asking the standing policy committee on property and development to request a public service report on how the city could perform both demolitions and cleanups at sites immediately after fires, with the bill going to the owner of the property through municipal taxes.

“We’ve got to keep pushing. It has to happen. We cannot accept piles of rubble everywhere, we have to be able to clean up right away,” he said Monday.

A similar motion was put forward by Coun. Cindy Gilroy last April, but a city staff report released in September found that while the city has the power to clean debris and charge owners for doing it, the practice could be cost-prohibitive.

“I know that the costs are going to be high. I know there’s lots of complications due to remediation… but what is the plan here? Are we just going to let everyone tear down buildings and not clean them up?” the Daniel McIntyre councillor said at the time.

Dobson said he’s putting the motion forward in hopes of keeping the issue on the city’s radar, and would like a new report to compare actual demolition rates at local private companies to see if the city could do it at a cheaper price.

“And if, unfortunately, the property tax or the value of the property is not sufficient, then the city will have to just take a hit,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca