Confusion rages over private agency
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/07/2009 (5926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
WINNIPEG — The decision to include a private partnership in Winnipeg’s proposed utility continues to haunt administrators and politicians at city hall, as confusion rages over a plan to create a stand-alone agency to handle water, sewer, garbage and recycling services.
Mayor Sam Katz’s cabinet is expected to spend four to six hours hearing public concerns about the utility plan this afternoon at the final meeting of city council’s executive policy committee before the summer break.
Two dozen union leaders, activists and ordinary citizens have registered to address the committee.
While questions remain about the role a private engineering consortium will play in approximately $1 billion worth of sewage-treatment upgrades and sewer replacements, some utility opponents are expressing concerns about outright privatization and the possible export of water to international markets.
Katz, utility project developer Bryan Gray and chief administrative officer Glen Laubenstein have repeatedly dismissed these charges. But their decision to write a potential private partnership into the proposal has muddied the waters, charges Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt, an EPC member.
"I couldn’t imagine rolling this out in any worse way than the way they rolled it out," he said Tuesday, stating he supports the general idea of a corporate utility. "There’s no doubt the strategic partnership has clouded the issue of the water utility and vice versa."
Ironically, the city has spent $250,000 on a communications strategy for the utility. It is supposed to allow Winnipeg to more nimbly complete its ongoing $1.8-billion sewage-treatment upgrade, offer water-and-sewer services to neighbouring municipalities and possibly create a green-energy subsidiary.
If approved by EPC today, the utility proposal will proceed to city council as a whole on July 22.
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca