Make team tackling derelict properties in Winnipeg permanent, city report recommends

A team created to speed up City of Winnipeg responses to complaints about burned-out and derelict properties could become permanent. 

The city launched the unsafe conditions response team as a pilot project last year. At the time, city bylaw enforcement officers were taking weeks to make it to properties.

Since launching the team, consisting of bylaw officers and building inspectors, the city has cut response times to one day for the initial inspection, while follow-up contact with the property owner is happening within seven business days, according to a city report.

At this time, the team is made up of existing department staff and "is currently subject to competing departmental priorities. If the existing resources are required elsewhere, the [unsafe conditions response team] program would be ended," Rick Klassen, the manager of community construction permits, wrote in the report, which will be discussed by council's property and development committee on June 11.

The city recommends that council approve funding to hire three temporary full-time employees to keep the program going until the end of this year, at a cost of about $130,500.

It also recommends including funding for the team for the next four years, beginning in 2026, at a total cost of about $1.1 million for that period. That funding would be voted on in next year's budget process.

The proposal needs approval from council.

Darrell Warren, president of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association, says he's happy the program could be made permanent.

"I'm very enthusiastic about this program, because anything that speeds the process up would be a bonus in getting these derelict properties cleaned up, or whatever has to be done with them," Warren said.

The William Whyte neighbourhood has among the highest rates of vacant building fires in Winnipeg. In the past, the slow response to complaints has been discouraging, he said.

"The process is very, very slow going and it impacts the neighbourhood, because things aren't getting done and people aren't seeing a positive response when they go ahead and make their complaints on that particular property."

Property and development committee chair Coun. Evan Duncan says he supports the proposal.

"Since November of 2024, we've seen a dramatic uptick in timeliness and effectiveness for the department to get out there and assess these sites and make sure that things are getting cleaned up and not sitting there as big piles of rubble and ruining people's neighbourhoods," Duncan said.

According to the report, the team referred 79 properties to the city's municipal accommodations department for remediation, which the city had identified as problem properties over the last three years, 37 of which are complete.

In a news release, Mayor Scott Gillingham said he supports making the team permanent.