Possible Enchroachment Fine for Paul Martin Scaffolding

by Justin Prince

The City of Windsor intends to charge the Canadian government more than $51,000 in encroachment fees if it doesn’t remove the scaffolding in front of the Paul Martin Building.

City council passed the proposal after receiving word from Public Works and Government Services Canada on April 7 that they didn’t intend to remove the scaffolding in front of the building Ouellette Ave. According to Mayor Eddie Francis, the city plans to change the level of fines against the agency from a hoarding permit to encroachment fines. The fees will increase from more than $2,000 to less than $52,000. This will make the fees more than 25 times more than they were before. The city has given the PWGSC until July 1 to remove the scaffolding before the fees come into effect.

The city’s current bylaws state the maximum period a hoarding permit can be used at a certain location is two years. According to city engineer Mario Sonego, the scaffolding has been in place since 2010.

“City administration has reviewed the recent correspondence letter from (Public Works and Government Services Canada) as to our request to come up with a plan dealing with the scaffolding that’s been permanently erected on the sidewalk,” said Francis. “Scaffolding by its intended nature and definition is supposed to be temporary to allow for fixes to take place. It’s clear in this case that neither has taken place.”

According to a letter sent to city council from the PWGSC March 10, the scaffolding is needed “for the purpose of ensuring public safety” and is needed until the building’s façade is repaired. The agency also said in the letter that they don’t plan to do the repairs until the building is sold as is. According to Francis, the city has little jurisdiction against the government on their decision.

“Because of this situation, we realized we had a hole in our policy,” said Sonego after the meeting. “Hoarding permits are generally temporary in nature, usually a couple of years. Usually encroachment agreements are things that last a long time … so we had a hole in our policy where we charged so little for an encroachment or hoarding agreement that there’s really no incentive for anyone to act fast. They could sit for $2,000 and it was cheaper to not do anything.”

But during the meeting, there was some disagreement over the decision among city council. Ward 3 Coun. Falvio Valentinis asked Francis after it was approved if the PWGSC was already on notice, which led to an argument about the situation. Francis told Valentinis that there were no available options other than to approve the new fees. He also said the city can’t take down the structure because of the safety issues brought forward by the government.

“I don’t think the $51,000 is going to be a significant deterrent in terms of getting them to move on that particular project,” said Valentinis. “We’re talking renovations of millions of dollars required. The $51,000 is not going to be significant.”

The PWGSC was unable to be reached for comment before publishing time.

According to the proposal, once the hoarding agreement expires July 1, the encroachment agreement will come into effect.