City policies are leading to the destruction of historic resources and unnecessary plugging of landfills, according to a Winnipeg recycler. Harry Bohna, owner of Happy Harry's Used Building Materials, 46 Archibald St., said that the city's approach to building demolition hasn't kept pace with the times.

"There should be a two-stage tendering process when a building's being demolished," he said. "The first stage should be to remove as many good fixtures and interior finishing as possible for recycling. Then a second tender would be called for the actual demolition of the building." At present, city regulations make recycling of building materials difficult. A tender is called only for demolition, as a result there's little consideration given to salvaging materials.

"There's no attempt to preserve our heritage," said Bohna.

On top of this, companies which bid on demolition projects must show extensive financial resources and need major performance bonds, Bohna added. Then, demolition timetables are usually so tight that there's no room to consider recycling materials. "They just go to the landfill or, if they're quality materials, they go out-of-province."

Bohna said that he obtained about 25,000 square feet of superb, first-growth, tongue-and-groove maple flooring from the recently-demolished Codville Building on Westbrook St. "But that was only because of a personal contact with the demolition company, Paragon Industries, otherwise all that flooring would be in the landfill or out-of-province.

"We get interior designers and architects in here all the time, looking for original and unusual items," Bohna said of his Archibald St. yard. "They snap up things that we might consider junk. I wonder why."

Bohna wants a change in city policies towards building demolition, because the philosophy behind current regulations is decades old. "It comes from that period after the war when everything old was considered junk. We're just starting to realize that the materials they use in old buildings have their own elegance, and they've withstood the test of time."

The maple flooring is just one example. "It makes supreme flooring in a new building with just a bit of sanding and refinishing -- no more than a new floor would need, but the material is of much higher quality." The quality of the wood isn't the fault of lumber yards, but a natural fact. First-growth forests were mostly logged over years ago, and consumers must now pay a premium for first-growth lumber. Reusing materials from a building being demolished only makes sense, added the recycler.

Bohna doesn't blame the city for its approach to demolition. "They just haven't changed the regulations to suit the times. Politicians have been so busy trying to preserve standing buildings that they forgot about the historic resources in the buildings which must be demolished. If they're serious about preserving items from the past, then they should allow for that in their policies." He plans to contact Coun. Glen Murray, chair of the Historical Buildings Committee, about changing civic policies towards building salvage and demolition.

Bohna noted that the North Portage Redevelopment Corp. made historic mosaic tiling from the demolished Enderton Building available for the addition to the Pantages Theatre. "Those terracotta inserts are really attractive. They're perfect examples of how building materials can be recycled."

Bohna wants a chance to bid on a contract to rescue materials and fittings from buildings being knocked down. Not only would that preserve heritage, but it would also reduce demolition costs, saving taxpayers money, he explained. "If the city wants householders to recycle their garbage, why can't they ask the same when a building's being demolished?"

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