July 21 2024 – Is City Council Penny-Wise And Pound Foolish?

The final meeting of City Council before summer vacation had some important items on the agenda, and some gems from four councilors we’ve interviewed on the podcast previously.

This week we do a listen-along of remarks from Mayor Scott Gillingham and from those council members last Thursday. What they say about proposals for garbage pick-up and fixing an old bridge will open your eyes to how fiscally confused our civic government has become.

Part 1- An update of the $5600 Season 5 funding drive- and why donors love the gift of a copy of Retropeg for their support.

8.30 Part 2 – Mayor Gillingham hopped on Zoom to get his say in the July council debates. Hear how he seemed to be for adding more City-run garbage collection, before he was against it.

14.55 – St. Vital councilor Brian Mayes hearkens back to the lessons learned from the Golf course controversy a decade ago, as he challenges Gillingham’s math about what the extra costs would be for a mixed service.

“Wow you’re going to increase that by maybe 8 million over 7 years on this $280 Million base contract.”

You’ll hear the comparisons to Ottawa and Calgary, and why their approach would make sense for Winnipeg, especially since “the arson thing is really a red herring.”

Has your city councilor told you how expensive household garbage fees are going to become under Gillingham’s current plan?

24.20 Part 3 – For years we wondered why replacing the ancient Louise Bridge disappeared from the City priority list. Last week’s decision to squeeze another 25 or 30 years out of it exposes why- it’s because the north and east side of the City don’t count.

The bigger picture, says Coun. Russ Wyatt of Transcona, is that not replacing the bridge but merely refurbishing it for $40M means the taxpayers essentially saw millions wasted on the eastern corridor study.

Wyatt notes the plan is to close the bridge for 2 years. The effect on traffic, especially after Gillingham forces Portage and Main opened up to pedestrians and extra transit buses, will be catastrophic.

“This could have been avoided… where is the leadership from our senior management? This is something any public works director worth his salt wouldn’t have signed off on.”

Wyatt asks a good question- why isn’t the City adding a new span to get buses over the river and remove them from traffic lanes?

38.20- Hear why Mynarski Councilor Ross Eadie, whose ward borders the bridge, reluctantly agrees with the stop-gap solution.

41.00 Jason Schreyer’s ward is the most affected by the decision. He provides a history lesson about the Louise Bridge. and how council for 20 years refused to save the money needed to replace and modernize it.

Instead, councilors doled out the dough to infrastructure projects in other, more politically important neighborhoods than Elmwood.

45.00 – Marty explains the downside of Gillingham’s plans: Adding buses and bike lanes downtown while opening P & M at the same time as closing the Louise Bridge- what can go wrong? Plenty.

Meanwhile, as his Winnipeg Sun column this week describes, the City is rushing through a 30 year transportation plan while making sure the public has no chance to study the implications and tell their councilor what they think.

No one at City Hall dares admit it will massively extend commute times for people on Winnipeg’s east side, including St. Boniface, East Kildonan and Transcona. We will continue to expose the bias against those neighborhoods.

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Coming up: An interview with Coun. Brian Mayes; trouble on the western front for St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard; and a Lesson in Journalism!

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Local analysis and interviews help hold politicians, bureaucrats and MSM accountable! And that’s what we do here at ActionLine.ca. The current Season 5 Fundraising Drive has brought in $1525.00 towards our $5600 target – help us keep the momentum going!

Every donor this season will get a special gift! Published in December 2005, Retropeg is a collection of Black & White photos of Winnipeg taken by the late James Donahue in the early 1970s. Originally undertaken as an arts project with funding by a grant, Donahue’s photos were never exhibited. Many of the photos were never printed prior to Retropeg.