Spring cleaning can’t come soon enough, residents say
City, landlord kick around blame on trash heaps
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/03/2025 (216 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Jay Gagnon can no longer stand the smell.
The North End resident is fed up with a massive mound of garbage rotting in the backyard of two rental properties that neighbour his house on College Avenue.
The garbage pile, which Gagnon said has been a near constant fixture for years, has swelled to new heights with the spring thaw and now covers the backyards of the rental homes at 556 and 558 College Ave.

Tyler Searle / Free Press
Neighbours living near two rental homes at 556 and 558 College Avenue say excess garbage has been a longstanding issue.
On Wednesday, the debris included discarded pizza boxes, food, plastics and clothing — some of which was piled on the roof of an attached garage after somebody tossed it out a second-storey window.
“Imagine living next to that,” Gagnon said, pointing toward the rancid mess. “We’d like to sit in our yard, but it starts stinking there.”
The pile is emblematic of a larger issue consuming the inner city, where Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie says people are being “victimized” by negligent landlords and people who don’t respect the community.
Eadie said the City of Winnipeg is working to address the problem, but Gagnon and others are tired of waiting.
“The more garbage there is, the more it attracts the people… They are on drugs, mumbling and talking to themselves. I don’t know how the city could let something like that happen,” Gagnon said.
The frustrated homeowner moved to the 500 block of College Avenue with plans to fix his house up and sell it. Over the past four years, he has reported the garbage issue to the city more than a dozen times, he said.
Now, after investing more than $20,000 in renovations (including $2,500 spent on exterminators to fend off the roaches, rats and other pests that come scuttling from the trash), he said the couple is afraid to put it on the market.
“Our realtor said, ‘Jay, if you put it up for sale, you’re going to get $40,000 less than you could if that’s not all cleaned up.”
The Free Press spoke with another neighbour who did not want to appear on the record but confirmed the garbage pile has been a longstanding issue. She has lived across the back lane from the problem properties for four years.
City spokesperson Kalen Qually was unable to detail how many complaints have been filed over the rental homes since 2021, but said bylaw officers have conducted inspections on both properties.
The city would not confirm whether those inspections have resulted in fines.
“In circumstances where the officer observes gross neglect or if we are dealing with a repeat offender, our officers can escalate the enforcement process by issuing further ticketed fines,” Qually said in an email statement.
Individuals are subject to $200 fines for excessive garbage on their properties, while corporations are charged $400. Offenders can be subject to $250 in additional fees if they repeatedly flout city orders.
In certain instances, the city can remove the garbage and add it to the owner’s property taxes, Qually said.
On Wednesday, two days after the Free Press asked the city about the garbage pile, a Waste Connections of Canada truck arrived in the alleyway. Workers collected about three bags worth of loose garbage before leaving, Gagnon said.
Daniel Unruh, the director of Prodan Investment Inc., which owns the rentals, called the penalties unfair.
“The city’s hitting landlords with steep fines for things like dumped garbage, which is popping up everywhere now that the snow’s melting. Just drive around, every block’s got boarded-up houses and backyards full of trash. Landlords are dealing with this, and they’re fed up,” Unruh said in an email statement.
When questioned about the garbage pile, he blamed the issue on crime, vandalism, break-ins and theft.
“This could all be prevented if the city cracked down, but instead, they’re punishing landlords while letting the culprits walk. Landlords are trying to fix what they can, but it’s a city management failure. If this keeps up, investors will pull out and quality homes in the North End will vanish,” Unruh said.
Less than a kilometre away, on the 400 block of Pritchard Avenue, homeowner James MacKinnon said he, too, is tired of trash.
Another garbage pile, similar in content and size to the one on College Avenue, has swamped the rear lane behind his home for the past three years. MacKinnon said he has reported the issue seven times to no avail.
“What the hell are we paying taxes for?” he asked, speaking from inside his home, where the garbage pile was visible from a rear window. “The North End always had a bad name, but not like now. Something has got to be done.”
Eadie agreed, saying the city will soon begin its annual spring cleaning program and bylaw officers will be out in full force.
The councillor said improper garbage disposal has been a challenge in his neighbourhood for more than a decade. The issue is worst in areas with a high number of rental properties, he said.
“People can throw blame all over the place if they want to. People here at the city are trying to do something,” Eadie said. “They are the culprits, these people who have no respect for other people’s property or neighbourhoods.”
Eadie is pushing for the city to introduce a tax credit to homeowners who want to erect a fence around their property. Doing so might help reduce dumping, he said.
Gagnon said he contacted Eadie two years ago regarding excess garbage at a different rental property. The councillor showed up in person the next day, assessed the extent of the issue and crews swiftly arrived to clear the garbage out.
Gagnon and MacKinnon said they want the city to expedite its enforcement process.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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