Province may have to clean up burned out apartment building

The P.E.I. government is looking into bypassing the owner of an apartment building in Tyne Valley that burned in November and cleaning it up itself.

• Empty apartment building burns in Tyne Valley

The three-storey abandoned building on the Allen Road was mostly destroyed by the fire.

"It's just a huge pile of debris right now. Wood and siding and roofing, and it basically looks like a wrecking ball came and it's still sitting there," said Jeff Noye, chair of the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival.

"It just kind of gives the tourists and other people the wrong image of what we want to portray as Tyne Valley."

Noye is particularly anxious to have the site cleaned up before the festival starts on Aug. 2. The village is expecting thousands of people, and the apartment is right on the parade route.

Cost estimate expected soon

Provincial officials say the owner of the property was issued a cleanup order under the Unsightly Property Act, but failed to comply. The Department of Community, Lands and Environment is investigating cleaning up the property.

No cost estimate is available yet. Department officials say they will likely have that estimate by the week's end.

If the province does the cleanup, the act allows an order to be issued to recover the costs through registrar of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

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