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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
Property and development committee chair Coun. Evan Duncan: \u201cWe want to bring these buildings back into use, or have them repaired, have them redeveloped.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city handed out 857 empty building fee invoices from 2020 to 2025, totaling $4.04 million. Twenty-eight per cent of those invoices have been paid, resulting in $878,761 being collected.<\/p>\n
The fees are intended to discourage property owners from keeping buildings vacant over the long term.<\/p>\n
If 25 per cent of the fees handed out for 595 vacant residential buildings in Winnipeg were collected this year, it would put $890,000 into the reserve, based on a count of vacant buildings in April.<\/p>\n
That amount would be enough to fund the next phase of operations, which would target necessary remediation work on vacant buildings and encourage reoccupancy, the report reads. If the establishment of the reserve is approved, this work could begin in early 2027.<\/p>\n
The third and final phase, which would be launched when the reserve has a cash balance of $2 million, would fund vacancy prevention programming, possibly through financial assistance to residential property owners or expanding remediation efforts.<\/p>\n
Property and development committee chair Coun. Evan Duncan said the city has learned \u201cthere needs to be a mechanism, including actual boots on the ground\u201d in place to fund further enforcement of negligent building owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to bring these buildings back into use, or have them repaired, have them redeveloped, but what is not going to be an option moving forward here is to let them sit there and rot and invite trouble in their communities,\u201d Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) said Monday.<\/p>\n
The reserve requires full council approval to move forward. Mayor Scott Gillingham said he was supportive of the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny funds that we take in, funds that are related to penalties, to be able to turn around and repurpose those funds to incentivize property owners to develop their properties, I think, is a good use of those funds,\u201d Gillingham said.<\/p>\n
The report recommends the reserve fund an additional legal services staff position to take on invoicing vacant building owners, a new building remediator inspector position, and an additional vehicle for carrying building inspection equipment.<\/p>\n
The legal staff hired through the reserve would also support the Taking Title Without Compensation enforcement process, which allows the city to take control of vacant buildings if owners are not following compliance orders.<\/p>\n
The process is \u201cintentionally lengthy and time intensive, as it is designed to provide property owners with the maximum opportunity to achieve compliance and retain ownership of their property,\u201d wrote Yee, noting it requires a conviction in court to proceed.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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The empty building fee was restructured this year to reduce the number of yearly inspections required for a property to be subject to the fee from three to one, and changed the dollar amount from a flat rate of two per cent of the building\u2019s value after three years to one per cent of the property\u2019s value after one year of vacancy. It rises by an additional one per cent each year, up to a maximum of five per cent.<\/p>\n
Applications for the new vacant building grant, which will provide up to $35,000 to property owners looking to purchase and redevelop vacant or derelict buildings into housing, open Thursday. The city has set aside a one-time total of $3 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can use a combination of carrot and stick, so be it,\u201d Gillingham said of the grant. \u201cThis really is the carrot approach, where we would provide those property owners the opportunity to revitalize and renew their property.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 with files from Joyanne Pursaga<\/p>\n
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Malak Abas Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg\u2019s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Reporter
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