Katz pins future plans to funding

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This article was published 17/03/2012 (4939 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After years of hinting his current term in office will be his last, Sam Katz is now pledging to remain Winnipeg’s mayor as long as it takes to wrest more infrastructure money away from the province.

On Friday, Katz used his eighth state of the city address to repeat a complaint he initially raised at his first annual speech in 2005: The City of Winnipeg deserves a better funding deal.

“There simply is not enough to fund a great, modern city,” Katz told a crowd of approximately 1,000 at a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce-sponsored lunch at the Winnipeg Convention Centre.

The construction of new roads, community centres and other forms of infrastructure in Winnipeg is not sustainable with the current level of funding the city receives from the Selinger government, said Katz, claiming the city is “dead last” in Canada when it comes to access to growth revenues.

And in a new wrinkle to the theme he’s been espousing for eight years, Katz promised he would remain in office until the province provides the city with more money.

“Until Winnipeg and all municipalities have a sustainable source of infrastructure (funding), I won’t quit until that’s accomplished,” Katz told reporters following his speech.

The mayor previously maintained he believes in term limits and has said two full terms should be sufficient for him. Katz was first elected in a 2004 by- election and will have served 2.5 terms when the next municipal election is held in 2014.

Katz said it’s far too early to decide whether he will run again, but such statements may place a chill on the mayoral ambitions of council allies such as St. James Coun. Scott Fielding and St. Norbert Coun. Justin Swandel.

Overall, Friday’s speech amounted to a tightly focused complaint about the province, as the mayor announced no new policy initiatives. Katz shied away from any direct swipes at Premier Greg Selinger, singling out Local Government Minister Ron Lemieux instead.

Last week, Lemieux compared Winnipeg to the unsatisfied orphan in Oliver Twist. With Lemieux in the audience Friday, Katz suggested the minister was not taking the city seriously.

Katz then repeated requests, made in a Feb. 29 letter to Selinger, for new funding mechanisms that include portions of provincial sales-tax proceeds, fuel taxes, land transfer taxes or motor-vehicle registration money.

Following the speech, Lemieux said he was pleased to see the mayor offer some suggestions.

“We’ve been able to accomplish a lot working together and we want to continue that,” said Lemieux, sidestepping questions about how it felt to be singled out in a crowd of approximately 1,000.

Proceeds from the $85-a-plate event will be donated to non-profit social-service organizations Ka Ni Kanichihk and Resource Assistance for Youth, Katz said.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca