Winnipeg vacant building owners could pay costs for firefighters if city council passes motion

The City of Winnipeg wants to make owners of vacant buildings pay the costs when there's a fire.

The property and development committee will vote next week on a motion that would charge fees for sending firefighters to those calls.

Fees would cover expenses of sending a district fire chief and driver at $340 per hour, as well as emergency vehicles at $1,357 per hour.

The fees would cost property owners between $12,000 and $14,000 on average, said committee chair Coun. Sherri Rollins.

"There is a cost to getting all those resources to a building that isn't properly secured … 12,000 to 14,000, that's a big hit," she said.

"The bottom line is we want building owners to be doing the right thing and securing their building and, frankly, putting it into use, because we're in a housing crisis," Rollins said.

Exceptions include if the fire started on a neighbouring property or was caused by a natural disaster or vehicle crash.

The motion does not include exemptions for fires caused by arson, unless that arson occurs on an adjacent property.

A report from the city says there are currently 683 vacant buildings registered in Winnipeg. Between 2019 and 2021, there were 39 to 40 fires in each of those years.

The costs of responding to those fires ranged from nearly $426,000 to more than $500,000.

The city does not have complete data for all of 2022, but between April 5 and Dec. 29, there were 74 fires in vacant buildings — nearly double the number in the previous three years.

Vacant building owners are already responsible for paying inspection fees, boarded building permit fees and in some cases annual empty building fees.

The goal of imposing fire protection fees on property owners would is to encourage them to protect their buildings and ultimately return them to the housing market, Rollins said.

"We do not want them to be vacant, let alone derelict, to the point where it needs to be boarded," she said. 

"What we we want to be doing with this is making sure that we are assessing the penalties efficiently, so that we know what will be a deterrent for sitting on your vacant building."

If the property committee passes the amendment to the vacant buildings bylaw, it would still have to go through council.