People living and working in Winnipeg’s North End assembled Saturday to address concerns regarding vacant building fires and arson.
“I mean, this is a historical issue as well, but it seems that things have escalated in the last few weeks and months, and we’re really just trying to gather as a community to come up with new ideas and how we tackle this together,” Natalie Smith, a St. John’s neighbourhood resident and member of North End History, told CTV News.
North End History hosted an afternoon seminar at Sergeant Tommy Prince Place to come up with a fire safety plan based on input from residents, community advocates, business owners, Winnipeg Police Service members, and city councillor Ross Eadie.
The seminar included a panel discussion, along with breakout meetings to brainstorm ideas and compile community-based resources.
Darrell Warren, president of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association, said boarded-up and derelict vacant homes are the crux of the problem.
“We want to make our neighborhoods prosperous and get these places cleaned up,” Warren told CTV News. “If they’re vacant lots, let’s get a building on them. And if they’re houses that can be fixed up, let’s get them fixed up, get some families in there and make it a viable neighborhood again.”
Warren said he’s been working with the City of Winnipeg on the matter and said the statistics on vacant building fires is staggering.
“The stats don’t look good right now,” Warren said. “Unfortunately, the numbers are only rising, and we got to get this under control and make those numbers go down.”
According to the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, there were 182 vacant building fires between January and September 2024. A city spokesperson told CTV News numbers for the entire calendar year aren’t available yet.
Natalie Smith said tackling deliberately set fires also means addressing homelessness, poverty, and other issues people are facing.
“There’s a lot of housing inequities in our neighbourhoods,” Smith explained. “People are going into these places that are abandoned and they’re starting fires. We want to make sure people are housed… and turn this into an opportunity to really develop our community.”
Smith added these fires are also reducing historic homes and other buildings to piles of rubble.
“Remember the Sutherland Hotel? It was a huge beacon for the beginnings of the North End,” Smith said.
The hotel, which opened in 1882, burnt down in January leaving another noticeable gap along Winnipeg’s Main Street stretch. Smith said the same issues are plaguing other thoroughfares like Selkirk Avenue.
“These are, historically, the [city’s] big economic centres and we’re seeing a lot of holes on these streets,” Smith explained. “We need to ensure we’re building up our community, so we have new economic structures in place while also having homes for people.”
At the end of the two-hour seminar, participants compiled what they’re calling the North End Fire Safety Plan.
Main points include:
- introducing a rent-to-own home ownership program
- offering low-cost renovation loans for people who want to invest and/or live in the North End
- establishing a community-based insurance program
- implementing less restrictive zoning on family homes
- creating a volunteer program for community safety and arson prevention
- encouraging residents to report suspicious activity around vacant properties to police
- and asking people to report derelict buildings to 311
North End History is hosting a follow-up seminar on March 29th.
