Manitoba Shared Health paying more than $1M in annual rent for offices left empty

The organization that oversees health-care delivery in Manitoba is spending more than $1 million a year on office space it is no longer using. 

Shared Health is paying rent for six locations in downtown Winnipeg, two of which are long-term leases for spaces that are now vacant, according to part of an internal document titled "Working from Home & Lease Consolidation" obtained by CBC News from a government source.

The rent totals $2 million for all six properties, including the two that are empty. In the rest of Shared Health's offices, less than 40 per cent of the space is utilized, the document reports.

The organization has 890 corporate and administrative staff, the majority of whom are still primarily working from home.

Downtown Winnipeg BIZ head Kate Fenske wants the unoccupied offices to be repurposed.

"I think empty offices are concerning. Empty offices, empty parking lots don't serve anyone. They're not helpful," the business improvement zone's CEO said.

"If those buildings are not going to be used, we'd rather see them shifted into some other form … whether it's housing or community spaces for arts, culture."

The largest office space in Shared Health's portfolio is at 355 Portage Ave. — the Air Canada building at Hargrave — where the organization has 54,000 square feet across two floors. No employees work out of that office, where the annual rent is nearly $787,000, the internal document said. Data centre staff continue to work out on the seventh floor, Shared Health said.

The organization also has nearly 27,000 square feet of unoccupied space just across the street at 330 Portage Ave., which costs $446,000 a year in rent.

A spokesperson said Shared Health assumed responsibility for the leases when eHealth and Digital Health services came under its purview in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

The offices haven't been consistently used since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Shared Health said the 10-year lease for two floors at 355 Portage will expire at the end of this year. The nine-year lease for the other office ends in February, but no renewal decision has been made.

Shared Health is reviewing its leased office space because its needs have evolved, a spokesperson said.

Downtown Winnipeg was hollowed out by pandemic restrictions that pushed office workers, including Shared Health's corporate and administrative staff, home. While some employees have returned downtown on a full-time basis, others have hybrid work arrangements or are fully remote. 

The shift to hybrid work prompted Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, a provincial Crown corporation, to consolidate three office locations into one. Ninety per cent of employees at 1555 Buffalo Pl. work under a hybrid arrangement.