Neepawa project in jeopardy: MLA

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This article was published 17/11/2011 (5396 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Assiniboine Regional Health Authority has a vacant East View Lodge to sell. The Town of Neepawa had developers interested in buying it to fill a community-wide housing crunch. Manitoba Health reportedly wants to be rid of the building.

So why does this building, vacant since 2009, risk a date with the wrecking ball?

Bureaucracy, critics say.

“In my perspective, there is a total disconnect with the province in terms of the mandates of the different departments,” said Rick Donaldson, Neepawa’s economic development officer.

Plans were drawn to transform the five-storey building into a 52-suite housing complex, but those plans were thwarted when the Assiniboine Regional Health Authority sought to sell the land, through the Town of Neepawa, to a developer for $1.

Stuart Briese, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Agassiz, said Oswald stepped in to stop the sale and put the building up for public tender instead. There were no takers.

“I have had conversations with (Oswald) and (Manitoba Housing Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross) and I was telling them the building is of no further use as a health facility but we are critically short of housing in Neepawa because of the immigration we have going on here,” Briese said. “Why don’t you just transfer it from Health to Housing and then we can make deals with the Housing department?”

If this issue isn’t resolved soon, Manitoba’s winter may make the decision for the government, as the Assiniboine Regional Health Authority has decided after maintaining the empty building since 2009 that it will not heat it anymore. The structure, aside from a roof that needs repair, is in good condition, Briese said, but a harsh winter could heavily damage the building, and that’s where liability comes into play.

Donaldson said developers have been willing to fix the roof now to prevent further damage while negotiating with the province.

“The province wouldn’t take them up on it,” Donaldson said.

If the building is demolished, the costs, which currently would be paid by the provincial government, could reach as high as $800,000, Donaldson said. The liability issue would become which department foots that bill.

“It’s government. It doesn’t matter who has the liability. Forget about this song and dance about Health or Housing having liability over (a potential) demolition,” Briese said.

For an affordable housing project to get going now, it would need to be transferred from Manitoba Health to Manitoba Housing.

“From the ministry of health’s perspective, they didn’t seem to recognize in spite of the provincial gobbledygook about housing being one of the critical steps in healthy living, they took the stand that it had nothing to do with health anymore and that this is an expense that could be used to treat patients and run the health authority,” Donaldson said. “Health is amenable to transferring it to Housing, but Housing isn’t so thrilled about the expense, despite the fact that in Winnipeg, they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to refurbish buildings like St. Matthew’s Church to get the same kind of rental units.”

Work could begin as early as Christmas, if the government would allow a developer to get the building for $1 and Manitoba Housing provided funding for the building retrofit, loosely estimated between $5 million and $6 million.

“The Department of Housing is building new units for $200,000 to $250,000 per unit,” Briese said. “For an investment of about $20,000-$25,000, they could get another 50 units here.”

With as many as 12 people living in a single house, thanks in part due to economic growth at the Hylife Foods pork processing plant, demand for housing exceeds supply for workers making an estimated $15 per hour, Briese said. Building 50 units in the vacant building would take some of the strain off of the housing demand.

“For me, this is a no-brainer,” Donaldson said. “If they let this go to demolition, they are going to have to pick up the demolition cost. If they were willing to sell to a developer, the town doesn’t have to assume any of the risk and if that developer needs incentives, it will be a product of whatever the cash flow projections are, but I’d bet that’s $1 million. Once a deal is in place, our council has been willing to do incentives before, such as a five-year tax holiday and an upgrade in infrastructure.”

Given the desire to make something happen with that vacant building, frustrations have built up.

“I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve often thought I should get to the auditor general about this because at the end of the day, this is a substantial waste of taxpayers’ dollars,” Donaldson said. “We have a housing shortage, we have a solution, it’s already a Crown asset. Let’s get together and do this.”

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com