Province evicted children in care before moving to break lease on Winnipeg facility, owner alleges
Legislation would end lease on 'a facility that was never appropriate for child care,' finance minister says
An owner of a Winnipeg facility for children in care is accusing the Manitoba government of evicting children in the middle of the night, three months before introducing legislation to break its lease on the building.
A committee hearing on Wednesday night heard from nearly 30 people, most of whom were critical of a government bill that seeks to prematurely end the lease on a facility for at-risk children, citing an "indefensible contract."
One of the owners — Ken Cranwill — said the government claims the building has been empty for six years, when the last children were actually evicted this year.
"We were told by the superintendent of the Southern Authority that the children were left crying, in the middle of the night, from the facility in February at the prompting of this government," Cranwill said.
Temporary placements since 2013
The province, however, states the building has been partially empty since 2013 and has only served temporary child placements since then.
The Manitoba government wants to terminate the contract for the 18,000-square-foot facility, which was signed between a numbered company involving Cranwill, and the Southern First Nations Network of Care, also known as the Southern Authority.
"This lease is an untendered agreement for the rental of a facility that was never appropriate for child care," Finance Minister Scott Fielding said, in introducing the bill earlier this month.
"The building lease and its terms were not in the public interest. Given the landlord's refusal to agree to a reasonable termination agreement, we have taken this measure to terminate the lease," he said.
The deal was signed in 2007, under the NDP government, to provide an alternative to hotel placements. The arrangement lasted 20 years and is worth $9.4 million.
A 2016 audit of the long-term property deal noted several irregularities, including the lease being untendered and costing twice the market rate.
Cranwill said the rushed expulsion severely damaged the building, resulting in broken windows, broken cabinets and food left to rot. He estimates the damage will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix.
He said the government later demanded to get out of the lease in nine months at the latest.
In response to questioning, Cranwill said the lease was in place for 20 years because the Southern Authority asked for that. He said the authority entered into an agreement after considering multiple other locations. The child welfare agency does not need to seek tenders because it is not a government department, he said.
Earlier this month, Premier Brian Pallister alluded to a possible court fight as his reason for being tight-lipped about the bill's rationale.
"We've made every effort to try to renegotiate in a fair way the terms of the lease, which we do not believe to be defensible, and have been unsuccessful in doing so, so this is our course of action now."
When asked what message the legislation sends to businesspeople who may become wary of signing government agreements as a result, Pallister said: "Don't enter into an indefensible contract at the behest of a government that is misguided in its efforts."
Watch a report on the underutilized facility from 2016:
The building at 800 Adele Ave. in Winnipeg, located near Arlington and Notre Dame, needed $2.1 million in renovations — $1.5 million of which was paid by the numbered company and the rest by the province.
It opened in 2010, mainly as an emergency placement for youth.
A portion of the facility became vacant in 2014 because of two instances of water damage that forced tenants to vacate the space, the province told CBC News in 2016.
At the committee hearing, the owners' lawyer, Dave Hill, likened the government's actions to trying to expropriate property but without compensation.
He said it's a dangerous precedent for the province to break legal contracts they don't like.
While Elsie Flette, former chief executive officer of the Southern Authority, spoke against the bill at the hearing, the organization's current leader, Tara Petti, argued the government is in the right.
She said the $500,000-a-year lease, now paid by the provincial government, would be better spent helping children in need.
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