Police to seek new site for North End station

The City of Winnipeg is looking for potential sites for a newNorth District police station after plans to build on the Old Exhibition Grounds met public resistance.

City real-estate officials are requesting permission from city councillors to seek private offers of land suitable for a new North End station that would replace the existing District 3 station on Hartford Avenue in West Kildonan.

The Winnipeg Police Service hoped to build that station on the Old Ex Grounds east of McPhillips Avenue, but public consultations held late last year suggested North End residents disliked the idea.

A summary of those consultations, published Monday, shows 60 per cent of the 224 people who responded to a survey about the plan said they disagreed or strongly disagreed with the idea.

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Pending the approval of council's property committee on Friday, city real-estate officials will issue a request for proposals to sell the city private land to build a new station.

It would be the final component of a police-station overhaul that saw the construction of a new East Districtstation onDugaldRoad in the St. Boniface Industrial Park, a new West District station on Grant Avenue in Tuxedo and the purchase and renovation ofthe former downtown Canada Post warehouse and office tower complex for a new police headquarters.

The latter project was completed years behind schedule and almost $80 million over budget. Its procurement and constructionalso were the subject of two scathing external audits and remainunder RCMPinvestigation.

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Buildingthenew North District station somewhere other than the Old Ex Grounds will result in an additional delay of one year to 18 months and cost increases above the approved budget of $23 million, city property officials say in the new report.

"The project is expected to incur cost inflation and escalation," its authors say,due to "market value of land to be purchased,"the cost of hiring consultantsand the delay.

The city will also have to spend money to keep the existing Hartford Avenue station open, the report says.

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A new project budget is expected once officials prepare new cost estimates, based on the response to the request for proposals for land.