Police station plans stalled further over property issues

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This article was published 03/02/2020 (2231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Few suitable locations for a long-awaited police station and evidence archive in northwest Winnipeg have forced the city back to the drawing board.

The City of Winnipeg property, planning and development department is reconsidering its plan to build the proposed North District station and archive facility on the same property, according to a quarterly update headed to the standing policy committee on finance.

Some properties offered up during a request for proposal process last year would restrict Winnipeg Police Service operations, the report suggests. The department is now looking at other options for housing the evidence archives, including a new facility on civic land or leasing commercial property.

The city did not accommodate a request for an interview Monday. In an email, a spokesman said it could not share how many bids were received or how many properties were shortlisted.

The project is now four years behind schedule, with construction of the new station expected to commence in 2022 and an opening date tentatively set for early 2023, according to the report. The approved budget of $23.3 million has also been surpassed with the current price tag sitting at $37.6 million.

Coun. Kevin Klein, chairman of the Winnipeg Police Board, said the latest setback is not surprising.

“It seems to be the never-ending saga of the north end police station,” Klein said. “There’s growing concerns that are not being addressed, and now the saga continues.”

As part of the move to a four-district model more than a decade ago, three new WPS stations were built in the east, west and south. The north district facility is the last outstanding to be built.

It will replace the Hartford Avenue station, which isn’t located to handle growth in the northwest communities and doesn’t meet contemporary policing needs, according to the city.

Money was set aside three years ago to build the new station on the Old Exhibition Grounds, a 44-acre, city-owned site in the Dufferin neighbourhood. Public opposition forced city council to abandon that plan and ask the public service to issue a request for proposal.

The city was seeking a plot of land between 4.5 and eight acres in size within the northwest police district, and had a number of requirements for zoning, location and transportation infrastructure. The requests for proposal closed in January 2019; the contract has yet to be awarded.

The WPS is also in need of a new facility to house its evidence collection. It’s expected the current archive will surpass its capacity by the end of the year.

The department has identified potential commercial properties for an interim and long-term evidence storage and is developing an implementation study and cost evaluation, the report states.

“I would hope that they would have a discussion about looking at city-owned facilities before looking at third-party facilities, because I don’t know why we’d add that expense to the taxpayer while certain buildings sit empty,” Klein said.

The public service is expected to report back to council in April.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca