Owner ordered to remove remaining tenants from notorious Winnipeg hotel

The remaining tenants of a notorious Main Street hotel will have to leave the building.

Winnipeg city hall’s property and development committee upheld a vacate order denying an appeal by the owner.

The committee of two, Coun. Jason Schreyer, and chair, Coun. Evan Duncan, voted down the appeal.

“The hotel will be ceasing operations until they come into compliance,” said Duncan.

Property department officials say the Jan. 17 order was issued after years of building and fire safety bylaw violations that have gone unaddressed.

The appeal hearing heard the hotel is supposed to have 24 suites, but there are actually 35, and that there were never permits issued for the extra eleven.

A report on the committee agenda showed other issues with the hotel. In one picture, part of the ceiling is gone and a window is boarded up. Another one shows drywall missing in a suite, and there is a picture of another area of the building with electrical wires hanging in the middle of a room.

Kelly Happychuk is the department’s chief of enforcement.

“We have had our staff in there and we have seen the conditions that are there,” said Happychuk.

The hearing also heard up to 12 residents remain in the hotel. Owner Akim Kambamba pleaded with committee members not to put them out in the cold.

“Some of my tenants are still staying by the river, that’s not fair, that’s not Canadian,” said Kambamba.

Current tenant Ken McFarlane told the committee there is heat, proper plumbing, and internet in the hotel, and that he feels safe in the room he calls home.

“Being out in the cold is unsafe to be, having to go in a homeless shelter can be unsafe to be,” said McFarlane.

Kambamba said he has been making repairs and just needs more time to get the hotel in proper shape.

“Allow me to have this process going so this building can be brought into compliance by summer,” said Kambamba.

It appears the city’s patience has run out.

“I would recommend that he get right to it, get an architect, quit making excuses and get housing back,” said Duncan.

A city spokesperson tells CTV News, with the appeal denied, the city will be enforcing the vacate order, adding staff has been in contact with the owner about “steps being taken in response to the order.”

But questions remain about where the tenants will live.

The city said it expects the province’s Residential Tenancies Branch and Employment & Income Assistance office to speak with tenants.