'We had no choice': Homeowners in St. Vital foot hefty bill to save backyards from river erosion

A handful of homeowners in St. Vitalare facing a huge and costly problem: Their backyardsare collapsing.

Bob Dickowns a house in the Norberry area on Dunkirk Drive. His property sits on top of a bank along the Red River, but the high water levels last fall started washingaway the bank, Dick said.

"How can you assess [the damage]? You have no yard," he said.

"We were hoping it would stop somehow and freeze over, but it didn't. It went right into October, early November, andthere was nothing we could do."

Large trees in Dick's backyard had to be cut down after the flooding because they became sick. He once had a sprinkler system set up to water the grass, but there was no point inkeeping it, he said.

Dick and four of his neighbours along the Red have to stabilize their land, otherwise risk losing their backyards. Right now, a construction crew from KGS Group, a local engineering and project management firm,is essentially recreating the riverbank.

"We had no choice," Dick said, when asked why the group acted.

The city does not have funds approved by council for riverbank restoration on private property, acity spokesperson told CBC News in an email.

The province will conducterosion mitigationwork when itsinfrastructure needs protecting, a provincial spokesperson said, butriverbank erosion "is a natural process and mitigating or remediating erosion is the responsibility of the landowner."

Dicksays the cost of the work could reach as high as $900,000 before taxes, which the group will split based on the length of their respective river frontage. He adds they were surprised when they learned they would have to foot the entire bill themselves.

"We thought it would be a partnership [with the City of Winnipeg], and it didn't take long for us to realize that we were out on our own," he said.

"We did get one thing: We got a permit which we had to pay for."

This isfrustrating to the homeowners, but it is also concerning.

"There are other homes that will suffer beyond us, but some of them are [owned by] young people who don't have the money," said Norm Van, Dick's neighbour, who lost several metres off his yard and is at risk of losing part of his deck.

"If they don't have the money then they can't hire KGS and they can't do all this work because they don't have the dollars."

Lost in all the mess is the sentimental value the backyards hold for the homeowners.

Van has lived in his home on Dunkirk Drive for 55 years. His children grew up there and he has memories ofwatching them play in the yard andthe river, andhanging out on the deck with his wife.

"We had a toboggan slide down here thatended up right in the river," Van said, adding that adult friends used it as well.

"My wife and I made a slide, and they used to slide right on the river and then come in for dinner, come in for drinks and have a nice evening."

Watch as crews work to fix the riverbank:

Dunkirk Drive dilemma

5 years ago

Duration 1:05

Work continues for homeowners along the banks of the Red River in St. Vital, who must foot the bill to replace and reinforce land claimed by erosion.