Acting Prime Minister and Minister Tourism, Investments and Aviation gave an update on efforts to revitalize Bay Street outside of Cabinet on Tuesday.

The Hon. Chester Cooper spoke with members of the media about the abandoned buildings lining Bay Street east of East Street. He said, “we’ve given notice to the owners of the structures. There is dialogue between the government, Ministry of Works in particular, and the owners, there are varying responses. Some of them are interested in repairing, some of them are supportive of demolitions. There are some support for redevelopment of some of the structures.”

Cooper continued, “sufficed to say we’re getting cooperation from the stakeholders. And when we get to a stage where there is a specific action to be taken that is what we will do. It is not the government’s view to be a bulldozer in this process, literally or figuratively. So we want to engage with the stakeholders properly. We want to listen to their positions and we want to work with them to ensure that this is done harmoniously.”

The Minister also said that the government is looking to make some of the downtown side streets pedestrian only. “Market Slope, the is a road between Prince George Wharf and Bay Street, right beside the Straw Market, we’ve identified that as the first opportunity. There’ll be additional vendor opportunities. It would be fully pedestrianized. I believe all stakeholders are onboard with that so far,” Cooper said.

Minister Cooper announced that demolition orders had been issued for nine buildings east of East Street in February.

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