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Bus fares, routes top St. Vital debate

10 contenders square off before Saturday's vote

By: Bill Redelop

Posted: 11/24/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Winnipeg city council can stuff its 25 cent bus fare hike and needs to do more to get traffic moving in St. Vital, candidates said in a debate Wednesday evening leading up to Saturday's byelection.

"We've been encouraging people to take buses. Now you're going to increase fares 25 cents?" said one of the candidates, Hammad Khan.

The issue of traffic swerved in and out of the candidates debate all evening. Population growth has resulted in traffic congestion and some poor roads in St. Vital.

Brian Mayes said he could remember living in the ward in the 1980s when there were just empty fields south of Nova Vista Drive. Now there are 20,000 people south of there.

He said short-term measures to ease congestion should include better synchronization of red lights, extended no-parking times in the mornings and evenings on St. Mary's and Ste. Anne's roads, and widening of sections of St. Mary's.

Terry Wachniak promoted fare-free transit and the benefits it would bring. The province already subsidizes more than half the transit system.

Marty Green, formerly of the cable access TV program, Math With Marty, two decades ago, would reconfigure bus routes to increase bus use. He produced maps with new bus routes that looked like pass patterns the Winnipeg Blue Bombers could use on Sunday. The plan would increase some walks to bus stops by five minutes but make it so there are buses every five minutes on major routes.

Mike Ducharme said the fare increase by city hall "cannot come so suddenly and cannot come without consultation."

There are 10 candidates running altogether, which limited the time any one of them could talk. The debate was put on by the Council of Winnipeg Women at the Norberry-Glenlee Community Centre.

The two front-runners are considered to be Ducharme and Mayes. Ducharme has pedigree, with a father and grandfather who were once city councillors. He is endorsed by the Union Fire Fighters of Winnipeg and the previous councillor, Gord Steeves.

Mayes, a lawyer, is endorsed by three provincial cabinet ministers: Theresa Oswald, Nancy Allen and Christine Melnick.

The St. Vital contenders also cited public safety and the need to improve community centres and recreational programming as serious issues facing the ward.

There were no real sparks. Ducharme found himself on the hot seat when asked whether the councillor for St. Vital should live in the ward. He said he lives in Island Lakes but has run his insurance brokerage, Ducharme Agencies, on St. Mary's Road for almost three decades, and has worked on many St. Vital institutions such as the St. Amant Centre, and was a trustee for the Louis Riel School Division for nine years.

The winner has the potential to affect the balance of power on city council. Steeves, a longtime Liberal, was a staunch ally of Mayor Sam Katz. He resigned from council to run in the provincial election as a Progressive Conservative. He failed to unseat Oswald in Seine River riding.

The ward is the most populous in the city with more than 50,000 residents.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 24, 2011 B2

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