Cleanup underway at former Main Street business destroyed by fire last year

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Peggy

A rubble pile on Main Street is getting cleaned up after more than a year.

Demolition crews started removing the remnants of the former Surplus Direct Store earlier this week. The store was one of three businesses destroyed by a fire in February 2023.

Two of the properties have already been cleaned up, but the owner of 843 Main St. challenged provincial workplace health and safety officials who said they detected asbestos.

The material, commonly used in building materials until the 1990s, has been linked to cancer and other diseases.

Provincial regulations require owners to come up with a plan to prevent asbestos fibres from becoming airborne before removal can begin. This usually involves soaking the debris with water and bagging it before taking it to the dump, a process that significantly increases the cost of the demolition.

Property owner Robert McDonald said he has repeatedly tested the material and found no traces of asbestos, but provincial health and safety officials said they did their own test, which came back positive for asbestos.

McDonald said he decided to go ahead and remove the rubble and pursue legal action against the province to recover the cleanup cost later.

“For the people of the area that have to live around that site, it’s not fair,” McDonald told CBC News.

“So I would like to have the site cleaned up, and then we’re going to take some alternative measures with the government and an employee of the government after we have that property cleaned up.”

The wet demolition added more than $300,000 to the cost of the cleanup, McDonald said.

Although he maintains that his tests all came back negative, he wanted to get the rubble removed before the winter freeze made a wet demolition impossible.

“This is 20 months since the unfortunate fire, and we’re finally getting it cleaned up, only because at this point, I’m submitting due to the fact that I’d like the area cleaned up,” he said. “It’s not fair for the people that have to walk by or live by that mess on Main.”

A provincial spokesperson said they take the risk of asbestos exposure seriously, and even one positive test is enough to confirm its presence.

The property is one of a number of sites that have been demolished and left for long periods of time due to disputes over the presence of asbestos and the associated costs of the cleanup.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham has called on the provincial government to work with the city to come up with solutions to get sites cleaned up faster. A working group with representatives from the Environment and Climate Change, Municipal Relations and Labour and Immigration ministries was formed earlier this year.