Property owner balks at buyout offer

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This article was published 07/01/2010 (5800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Richard Homeniuk has lived his whole life in one house along the Red River in the RM of St. Clements, but he won’t be there much longer.

Homeniuk, 55, is the lone holdout of 17 flood-prone property holders in the St. Peters Road area that the municipality is buying out with the backing of the provincial government.

While he won’t talk specifics, he said he’s being offered 30 per cent less than what he figures his property is worth. Included with the house, which was built in the 1950s and enlarged on two occasions, are 10 acres of land.

Homeniuk said that when the buyouts were offered last spring he was optimistic that he could get enough to get settled somewhere else. "With what they’re offering me I can’t replace what I had out there," he said Wednesday.

St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang said that except for Homeniuk’s property, the mandatory buyouts have gone fairly smoothly. "There are small little things that are pending, but they’re pretty well wrapped up," he said in an interview Wednesday.

The RM decided to buy out the 17 property owners because of cost and safety concerns. Floodwaters are a threat in the area almost every spring, and the municipality did not want to put rescue workers’ lives at risk any longer. The properties will be cleaned up — buildings and septic tanks removed — and left in their natural state. The cost of the buyouts — estimated at $4 million to $4.5 million — are double what they were initially pegged to be in the spring. The RM is paying 10 per cent of the cost, while the province is picking up the rest. All the property owners have vacated their homes except for Homeniuk and one other owner who has been given an extension while waiting for a new house to be completed.

Strang said the offer made to Homeniuk was based on the average findings of two certified land appraisers — one chosen by the RM and one by the owner. Homeniuk has the option of going to arbitration, in which a third appraisal will be done, but he’d have to accept that outcome.

"He’s trying to create a value where there’s no value," Strang said. "We can’t do that. It’s not fair. These tax dollars belong to all the residents of Manitoba."

Last fall, the province bought out more than 40 flood-prone cottages and permanent residences on Crown land at Breezy Point in the RM of St. Andrews at a cost of about $4 million. The buildings have all been vacated and are set to be removed or bulldozed this winter.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca