Winnipeg Minute: Issue 135

Winnipeg Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Winnipeg politics

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• A public inquiry into the construction of the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters has found that the City overpaid about $43.3 million for the project, $42 million of it to contractor Caspian Construction. In his final report, released on October 19th, Commissioner Garth Smorang found that Caspian owner Armik Babakhanians set out from the start to inflate the company's costs, including through hundreds of altered invoices, and pointed to an email in which then-Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Phil Sheegl pushed City staff to relax the bonding requirements that would otherwise have kept Caspian from bidding. Smorang concluded that former Mayor Sam Katz violated the public trust and the council code of conduct, and he rejected testimony that a $327,200 payment from Babakhanians to Katz and Sheegl was for a land deal in Arizona. Katz voted for budget increases of $50 million in 2011 and $16 million in 2013 that benefited Caspian, and the headquarters, first expected to cost $135 million, cost about $209 million and opened in 2016, two years late. The report commends the City's legal action, which recovered nearly $1.2 million from Sheegl and a $28-million settlement from Caspian, and makes 25 recommendations, including extending the Integrity Commissioner's mandate to senior City staff and letting Council receive sensitive information in closed sessions. Mayor Scott Gillingham has directed City staff to prepare a plan to implement the recommendations, while mayoral candidate Kevin Klein argues that not enough has been done under Gillingham to make sure it never happens again.
  
  
• Mayor Scott Gillingham and mayoral candidate Kevin Klein blamed each other for the soaring cost of the North End sewage treatment plant overhaul during a televised debate on October 21st. The project's cost estimate has grown from $795 million in 2015 to $3.2 billion. Klein noted that the first estimate came while Gillingham chaired the City's Finance Committee and questioned what he had done to secure funding, while Gillingham argued the plant would have cost less had Klein secured provincial funding as Manitoba's Environment Minister in 2023. The Province committed $167 million to the plant's second phase in 2022, before Klein became minister, and the NDP government most recently committed $500 million in August. After the debate, Klein said Gillingham had been invited to meetings with provincial staff and experts that Klein called as minister but sent Councillor Brian Mayes instead, and suggested the City was trying to build "the Taj Mahal" at the plant. Gillingham replied that Mayes chaired the Water and Waste Committee at the time.
  
  
• Trees Please Winnipeg is pressing candidates in the municipal election to pledge to pass a bylaw controlling the removal of trees on private property, where more than 80% of the city's trees grow. The pledge commits signers to a bylaw covering all trees more than 15 centimeters in diameter, and advocate Diane Poulin says about 75% of candidates have signed, though Mayor Scott Gillingham has not. Gillingham, who points to increased funding and a higher tree replacement rate during his term, would commit only to having Council discuss such a bylaw, not to passing one. Advocates note that cities including Surrey, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Toronto already have private tree bylaws, which generally still allow cutting for development or when a tree is unhealthy. Some residents are wary, while others say they would support a bylaw that leaves room for genuine safety and liability situations and requires replanting.
  
  
• Winnipeg Jets co-owner Mark Chipman has endorsed Mayor Scott Gillingham for another term ahead of Wednesday's municipal election. In a post on Gillingham's social media on October 19th, Chipman cited Gillingham's commitment to building a vibrant downtown and said he has confidence in his leadership. Chipman, the executive chairman and governor of True North Sports and Entertainment, endorsed Brian Bowman for mayor in 2014, then said he regretted it after a public feud in which Bowman suggested a downtown development deal between True North and CentreVenture lacked transparency. Gillingham said the two have worked together over the last four years on projects such as Portage Place and on issues such as homelessness. Gillingham has also announced an endorsement from former Canadian women's soccer player Desiree Scott, a co-founder of Winnipeg's Northern Super League team.
  
  
• Mynarski Councillor Ross Eadie, first elected in 2010, is seeking a fifth term against five challengers, the largest field of any ward race in Winnipeg. The challengers are Natalie Smith, who finished second in the ward in 2022, former Mynarski Councillor Terry Wachniak, who served from 1986 to 1989, and newcomers Harold Brazil, Laurie Kozak, and Ayaz Noor Mohammed. Eadie, who sits on the mayor's Executive Policy Committee and chairs the water and waste committee, wants more neighbourhood action teams and more safety measures for Winnipeg Transit drivers, and argued that none of his competitors has experience getting things done at City Hall. Smith, who is endorsed by the Winnipeg Labour Council and the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, wants the Province to restore 50-50 funding of transit operating costs. Wachniak called the $1.1-billion rapid transit network and the Arlington Bridge demolition "disasters", saying the $22 million Council set aside for the demolition has been spent with tens of millions more to go, and wants back the roughly 1,700 bus stops he says the transit network overhaul removed, along with managed encampments and money moved from projects such as the Chief Peguis Trail extension to neighbourhood services. Brazil wants transitional housing and more police officers in the ward, Kozak proposes a seven-day phone line for residents to report crime and bylaw infractions, and Noor Mohammed wants a public map showing issues reported to 311 and how the City dealt with them. All six candidates said a replacement for the Arlington Bridge is needed.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Winnipeg residents can vote in the municipal and school board elections on Wednesday, October 28, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Review the list of voting places and make sure you have the required ID ready before heading to the polls. Then, get out there and make your voice heard!

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

This week's sponsor is you! We don't have big corporate backers, so if you like what you're reading, please consider making a donation or signing up as a monthly member.

Having said that, if you are a local business and are interested in being a sponsor, send us an email and we'll talk!