Controversial loo's closure leaves some with nowhere to 'go'

A Winnipeg public washroom dogged by more than 30 years of controversy is now being torn down, leaving antsy passersby with nowhere to, well, go.

The washroom facility near the corner of Memorial Blvd. and Broadway Ave. was once the source of a dispute between the Manitoba government and the City of Winnipeg.

In the spring of 1973, the provincial NDP government under Ed Schreyer decided to build a public washroom across from the Legislative Building.

The idea infuriated then mayor Stephen Juba, who argued the washroom would interfere with nearby Memorial Park and be misused by drug addicts and transients.

Juba tried to stop the work order for the building, protested at the Legislature and even brought in a biffy with the public works minister's name on it.

Now, more than 30 years later, the current NDP government says it's shutting the facility down for the same reasons Juba gave back then.

"Transients hang out around this area," said Robert Basham, who passes by the public washroom on a regular basis.

"There's a lot of people who use Memorial Park as sort of a campground and general sitting-around place .... I think it's more perception, though, than reality that there's a threat."

Bernie Wolfe, who was deputy mayor in 1973, said he thinks Juba would have celebrated this latestturn of events if he were alive today. Juba died in 1993.

"Having known Steve that well, he would've just said, 'It's no surprise. I told you so,' and he would've been right," Wolfe told CBC News on Monday.

The province said when the bathroom gets torn down, the stone that makes up the facility will be reused for another project.