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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Reports on parkade a secret

Engineers inspected crumbling structure

By: Bartley Kives

Posted: 10/5/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Reports about the condition of a city-owned parkade are too sensitive to release to the public, city officials have determined.

The City of Winnipeg's property, planning and development department has refused to allow two Winnipeg media outlets access to engineering reports on the shuttered Civic Centre Parkade.

The Winnipeg Parking Authority closed the 46-year-old parkade on Aug. 24 due to structural-integrity concerns. Within days, the Winnipeg Free Press and radio station CJOB, acting independently of each other, filed freedom-of-information requests to gain access to reports about the parkade.

In a letter dated Sept. 28, the city denied the Free Press request for structural inspection reports on the parkade dating back to 2009, when the Winnipeg Parking Authority's annual business plan called for the structure to be repaired.

The city denied this request on the basis the information fell under the "advice to government" exemption and could also harm the city's "economic and other interests." A similar request filed by CJOB was also denied, the radio station reported Thursday.

Until 2010, the Civic Centre Parkade was earmarked for $6.2 million worth of repairs. In 2011, council voted to reserve $2 million from the $24-million sale of the Winnipeg Square Parkade for waterproofing and concrete work at the Princess Street structure.

But a 2011 parkade inspection report authored by structural engineering firm Crosier Kilgour & Partners pegged the cost of a long-term renovation at $11.3 million. Such a job would extend the life of the parkade by only 15 years, the engineers said in the report obtained by the Free Press.

Given the high cost of the renovation and the building's limited lifespan, the Winnipeg Parking Authority asked council in 2011 for $606,000 to conduct emergency concrete and shoring work to allow the parkade to last another five years, or at least as long as the police service would need to use the adjacent Public Safety Building.

Although council didn't approve the funds until 2012, the emergency work began ahead of schedule in 2011, St. James Coun. Scott Fielding said in August.

The city sank approximately $130,000 into the crumbling parkade in 2011 and planned to spend another $90,000 this year before another inspection led to the structure being closed, said Fielding, who chairs the council committee in charge of the Winnipeg Parking Authority.

On Thursday, Fielding said he believes the inspection reports should be made public.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 5, 2012 B5

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