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City's land offer irks Masons

They suspect a double set of standards

By: Bartley Kives

19/01/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 31

The city is expropriating some of the Masonic Memorial Temple's parking lot for the bus corridor project.

WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image

The city is expropriating some of the Masonic Memorial Temple's parking lot for the bus corridor project.

Masons at Confusion Corner say the City of Winnipeg has been less than rock-solid in its negotiations over land the city expropriated to build the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor.

In 2009, the city assumed possession of about 24,000 square feet of the parking lot behind the Masonic Memorial Temple at the southeast corner of Corydon Avenue and Osborne Street.

The strip of land was one of 11 parcels of property the city required to make room for a 3.6-kilometre busway that will run from Queen Elizabeth Way near The Forks to the corner of Jubilee Avenue and Pembina Highway.

The $137-million busway budget originally called for $12.7 million to spend on expropriations. But city councillors were informed earlier this month it will take $18.2 million to acquire all the desired land.

Expropriation deals already reached by the city include a $5.75-million agreement to compensate auto dealership Pembina Chrysler for the loss of part of its parking lot, and a $3.4-million compensation package for Donald Street's Midtown Car Wash, which also lost a strip of its parking lot.

The city has offered the Masonic Memorial Temple $523,000 for the loss of part of its own asphalt, secretary Brian Langtry said Monday.

The temple lost 91 of the its 200 parking spots in the expropriation, Langtry said, claiming it's now more difficult for his organization to rent out its hall.

The city may be applying one set of expropriation standards to private businesses and another to non-profit entities, he suggested.

"We got a cheque for $523,000 as an initial offer. They're supposed to sit down with us and discuss further. We have not heard anything further from them," Langtry said.

The city rejects Langtry's suggestion about two sets of standards. "That's going on in their minds. The negotiations are ongoing," city spokesman Ed Shiller said.

Expropriation settlements are dictated solely by factors such as the size of the land in question, its market value and actual use, he said.

"We apply the same criteria to all of these organizations," Shiller said. "The results are different because the nature of what they do is different."

Non-profit and for-profit organizations are not being treated differently, added city council's finance chairman.

"We bargain in good faith no matter what organization is involved," said St. James-Brooklands Coun. Scott Fielding.

The first phase of Winnipeg's rapid-transit corridor, which calls for a new bridge over Osborne Street at Confusion Corner and a tunnel underneath the CN Fort Rouge Yards, is supposed to be completed in 2011.

The city has no financing to build phase 2 of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor, a six-kilometre extension from Jubilee Avenue to Bison Drive. It is expected to cost $189 million.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 19, 2010 B1

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31 Commentscomment icon

The naysayers have obviously never been to Ottawa to see how great rapid transit can be.

The only problem I have is that the city desperately needs to remove a bunch of ill placed red lights (I'm looking at you Lagimodiere at the Springs church), remove many unwarranted stop signs and it would be incredibly convenient if we could bull doze a bunch of the ghetto areas and make a super high way to go across the city without stopping.

Of course Winnipeg will never do this , hence the double lanes for the disraeli overpasses. But we can dream can't we?

I'll agree that Winnipeg is in dire need of a mass people mover (and road repairs). However, BRT is not the answer. Oil is $80/barrel and going higher in the future (in case you don't know, diesel fuel comes from oil). Winnipeg's fleet of buses run on diesel and those engines emit some of the WORST emissions (ever see the black particulate matter flying out of them?). Clean(er) diesel technology does exit but not on those buses. Just because we have a bus manufacturer in the city IS NOT a good reason to go BRT. Only New Flyer and LaFarge/Inland will get rich with BRT.

Winnipeg needs something like Calgary's C-train. Calgary (and Edmonton) are in the midst of expanding their light rail operations. Calgary is actually setting up a TEMPORARY BRT, until their light rail line is extended in the next few years. They aren't building a dedicated concrete path for the BRT. They are using articulating buses (the bendy style) with priorty traffic signals.

Winnipeg is an IDEAL candidate for light rail. LOADS of excess electricity and relatively flat. But wait, we don't have a TRAIN manufacturing plant in the city. Light rail is the way to go!

Want to make traffic flow better in the city? Well, a good step would be to remove PARKING along major routes (seriously). A 3 lane road becomes TWO! Think Pembina, Henderson, Main, Portage, the list is endless.

The 2nd thing the city (and province) need to learn is new word:

OVERPASS !!!!!

Winnipeg is top of the line in major improvements.Look back thru history,There is always a group of nay sayers who don't want major improvements.Yes the improvements cost alot of money but they add to the long term quality of our City. The nay sayers did not want Duffs Ditch,the Portage and Main Projects,The Forks,the New Arena.Need I go on.

This whole rapid transit thing is a scam. It should have been put to a referendum. And the only voters should have been taxpayers. This obscene amount of money could be used to alleviate traffic congestion for busses and for the people footing the bill. As well as increasing productivity through less wasted time, and less wasted gasoline.(Idleing, stop and go, and low travel speeds all waste fuel) And if you believe in the global warming mumbo jumbo...There would be much larger reduction in greenhouse gasses by achieving the above, than by speeding up busses that no one with the money to own a car, would choose to ride...

mbsmiles - BEST POST EVER

Why doesn't the city just build more affordable housing by the U of M for the students and staff.............then they wouldn't even have to go downtown...........it would at least lessen the cost of the constant repair on Pembina...........oy vey...more buses, more road repair...........

@Renter: StatsCan estimated the city's population at 672,000 as of July 1, 2009, while the Winnipeg CMA was estimated to be 739,000. I reported this in July; the story should still be in the archive on this site.

The city's population is growing and has always been growing. Of course, our growth has been slow compared to that of Calgary or Vancouver, but the pace has quickened slightly in recent years.

Our population is expected to grow to 825,000 by 2019 and crack a million one or two decades later, depending on factors as diverse as the economy, migration patterns and climate change.

City planners are working on a land-use plan to accommodate all these extra people.

Bartley Kives

Our population will never reach 1 million, we have been "stuck" at 650,000 for as long I can remember. [1970] We need to have more investment in Winnipeg, [jobs] in order to create a larger growth of pop.
But it ain't happening now, the recession is still on no matter what your Goverment of Canada says. Yes, we need better streets, rapid transit and time the stupid red lights so we can move quickly AND efficiently around. Now, what was this story about? can't remember, I'm getting to old to fight.

avatar

@ mbsmiles:

I gotta say, spell checkers should be mandatory for these comments. We're not all masters of the English language, but my eyes can't deal with that.

@macboy

I took a 60 both North and South for 5 years. 2 to 4 more buses per hour would help a great deal and cost a fraction of the $300+ million BRT will cost us. The dedicated Bus Rapid Transit line will not save that much travel time and will do almost nothing to alleviate traffic congestion on Pembina. It is still just a bus and it is still inconvenient to a large number of people.

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