Neighbours fed up with Main Street rubble pile, over a year after fire
Surplus Direct building owner says tests showed no sign of asbestos, but province says otherwise
It's been 16 months since fire destroyed three businesses on Winnipeg's Main Street in February 2023.
Since then, two of the properties have been cleaned up, but a pile of rubble remains where the former Surplus Direct store once stood.
It's a sight that residents of the Point Douglas neighbourhood are sick of looking at, said Marshall Wiebe.
"You know, we've had people come down our back lane and just dump their garbage on top of the rubble pile itself," he said.
"It's garbage compounded upon garbage…. We don't like it because we do our best to keep up our end of the neighbourhood. It just attracts a lot of negativity."
Wiebe has lived in the neighbourhood for seven years. With several other burnt-out properties that have yet to be cleaned up, Wiebe says it has a "dispiriting" impact on the community.
"I really can't speak to where the responsibility lies," he said. "As a resident … we just want it cleaned up, because I just feel that if this was in Sage Creek or Whyte Ridge or any other area of the city, this wouldn't have lasted for even 24 hours, never mind 16 months."
Asbestos testing at issue
The owner of the Surplus Direct property, Robert McDonald, declined an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, but he said he wants the rubble removed.
The province has imposed a stop-work order over concerns about asbestos contamination, but McDonald says he has done numerous tests and found no trace of asbestos.
Asbestos remediation requires soaking the debris with water, bagging it and taking it to the dump — a process that adds significant cost to the demolition.
While stop-work orders were lifted and rubble removed from two adjacent properties, a spokesperson for the provincial government says its own tests found asbestos at 843 Main St. — the Surplus Direct property — and so that stop-work order remains in effect.
"The province takes asbestos management very seriously, as asbestos-linked disease is a leading cause of occupational illness and death," the spokesperson wrote in an email.
"It is important to note that a single positive finding is sufficient to confirm the presence of asbestos."
Cleanup is up to property owners, says mayor
Mayor Scott Gillingham says the matter is out of the city's hands and it's up to property owners to maintain their properties.
"If we start taking on the cleanup of all of these properties and all the asbestos costs associated with it, we're going to be asking taxpayers in other parts of the city to pay the costs and pickup the bill for some property owners who aren't doing their job of cleaning up their property," he told reporters during a news conference on Monday.
A city report in September warned the costs of cleaning up properties may exceed the money the city could recoup by selling and seizing those properties and selling them on the market.
There are several other large properties that have been demolished following fires which have yet to be cleaned up.
Work has begun on clearing the debris from the site of the former Vulcan Iron Works building on Sutherland Avenue. And the city has said it plans to clean up 694 Sherbrook St., where an apartment building was demolished after a fire in February 2022. No date has been set for that work to start.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
