Mayor's regrettable legacy was defined this week

We've all have bad weeks.

But there's a better, more meaningful word than a bland "bad" to describe the past Friday to Friday in the political life of the mayor of Winnipeg.

"Defining" comes to mind.

Sam Katz's defining week really involved eight days, three of which really tell the story.

Starting on Remembrance Day when, unlike every other mayor of any city of significant size in Canada, our mayor chose not to attend the annual civic ceremony that honours those who served and sacrificed so politicians like His Worship would be free to take a vacation on the day set aside each year to honour war veterans. And, on his return, also be free to arrogantly invoke the right not to tell us where he was on that long weekend when he should have been standing at attention at the convention centre, respectfully observing a moment of silence.

That was Day One.

Day Two in this trilogy of tales so telling of how the mayor leads our city came courtesy of Coun. Justin Swandel. It was Swandel who shocked council -- at least some of it -- by introducing a motion to hike transit fares by an additional 20 cents, thus bumping the fare increase to 25 cents. The extra 20 cents is to be tucked away in a separate account to help pay for a second leg of bus rapid transit that would complete the route to the University of Manitoba.

It all happened so quickly that one councillor felt like he'd been hit by a bus. But our unfazed mayor had no problem climbing aboard the Two-Bit Express, even though transit administration hadn't been consulted about the consequences, much less their funding partners, the Selinger government.

The fare hike, which is anything but fair to students and low-income Winnipeggers in general, passed council quickly, like a foul odour.

Except this one is apt to linger down the halls of political power.

The real target of the motion, it appears, was the Selinger government, which must have felt sideswiped, too, given that the province expected to sit down with the city to try to negotiate a rapid transit funding package.

Yet, Swandel went off like a child throwing a tantrum, which -- given what he told me the day before -- seems oddly out of whack with the way he thinks about conducting negotiations with senior governments.

Swandel and I had chanced to meet over breakfast Tuesday. Eventually the talk turned to the city's problems funding infrastructure and transportation and how it could all be solved if only the Harper government would restore the two percentage points it dropped from the GST and share some of the windfall with municipalities. But, Swandel added, "before anyone pulls a trigger anywhere," all three levels of government need to sit down and figure out a solution. And then next day, while pointing the pistol straight at the province, he pulled the trigger on transit fares.

Swandel has said it was his idea, but it makes me wonder if he was really shooting from the hip, or whether Katz was involved. Either way, the mayor immediately seized the opportunity to tell the province to "stop talking the talk" and starting "walking the walk," which, ironically, is a message more suited to low-income transit users who may end up really walking the walk.

And then there was Day Three.

As promised last Halloween, on Friday police Chief Keith McCaskill unveiled the city's long-awaited 48-page plan to reduce violent crime.

What's astonishing is the police service admits to not having a strategy to deal with violent crime in 15 or 16 years, this in Canada's perennial champion of per capita big city violent crime. What's more troubling in the immediate term is McCaskill was hired by Katz and council four years ago without a plan. When I asked McCaskill Friday if the mayor has ever asked for a plan, the police chief didn't answer directly.

When I asked the mayor the same question, he didn't either. "Just because there wasn't a plan on paper, I don't think you can come to the conclusion there wasn't a plan," Katz said.

There wasn't a plan. The 48 pages of paper is proof of that. Actually, why should we surprised there hasn't been a strategic plan to reduce crime since Katz took office? Short of Swandel's two-bit motion on Wednesday, there hasn't been a strategic plan on much of anything under Katz's leadership.

That is what defined his week. And that, I regretfully predict, is what will define his legacy as mayor and our future as a city. That and his unforgiveable snub to Remembrance Day.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 19, 2011 B1