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Consultants on Assiniboine bikeway did poor job: Katz

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 01/18/2012 10:31 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies) | Last Modified: 01/18/2012 11:22 AM | Updates

Mayor Sam Katz said the firm hired to do public consultation on the Assiniboine Avenue bikeway did a poor job of engaging area residents in the process.

This morning, council's executive policy committee reviewed a city audit report that identified shortcomings in the public consultation process over the Assiniboine Avenue bikeway. The report said local businesses were not included in the process, and public notifications should have outlined the full impact the active transportation project will have on traffic.

Graham Hnatiuk, a citizen journalist, told EPC they should seek a refund since the consultant hired by the city did not contact residents for their input for the on-street bike lane. Hnatiuk said he complained to 311 about the process, and department staff did not address his concerns.

Hnatiuk said the bikeway is "sparsely used" in summer, and hundreds of cars that used the route during rush hour are now travelling down an already gridlocked York Avenue.

"Residents were lied to, you guys were lied to," he said.

Bob Axford told EPC that the City of Winnipeg has a governance problem and public consultations need to be improved.

"This is a complete theft of democracy," he said.

Katz said he agrees that the consultant did not do a good job. He said the company had a short time frame to complete the public consultation process due to the deadline to use federal stimulus money for active transportation projects.

However, Katz said the firm shouldn't have accepted the job if they could not complete it in the given period of time. He said everyone, including the mayor, councillors and the city, could have done a better job.

"On this particular instance a very poor job was done," Katz said.

History

Updated on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 11:22 AM CST:
Updates with full writethru, comments from Katz

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