Manitoba government expropriates homes in East St. Paul

EAST ST. PAUL, Man. – At least 10 homeowners around Highway 59 and the Perimeter Highway will have their homes expropriated to make way for a cloverleaf.

“It’s very hard to find a place like this, it’s heartbreaking,” said Kalynn Bazan, who has been told she has to move.

“At first I was crying a lot, because there are so many memories here, and at first I thought it was a choice. I didn’t think someone was going to come and say you have six months to pack up your whole life.”

Residents at the 10 homes were told by the province that they need to be out in six months.

The $200-million cloverleaf construction project will begin next summer to ease traffic gridlock on the busiest highway intersection in the province, which sees as many as 35,000 vehicles go through each day.

“It would have been nice if they had told us in the summer, like, ‘This is your last summer,’ go out with a bang. We have lots of family gatherings here — everyone likes to meet up here,” said Bazan.

The neighbours on either side of Bazan also got notices.

“The problem is the houses are so expensive these days, so they better give me a good price for this one so I can find something,” said Elizabeth Polonia.

“We want to get this done and we will get it done,” said Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton. “We recognize it does impact people. There is a process in place and a very significant compensation, but we have to act. We’ve got to build the intersection.”

While the province said homeowners will get market value for their property and compensation, that’s not enough, some area homeowners said.

“They’d have to pay me a lot more than market price, let me tell you, because I’m not going anywhere,” said an area homeowner who wished to conceal her name.

A public information session will be held Wednesday night from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion, 3600 De Vries Ave., where Ashton will field questions from concerned homeowners.