‘We dropped the ball’ on Charleswood corridor, city CAO admits; Bowman not sure he has whole story

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This article was published 29/11/2017 (2883 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Brian Bowman said he’s yet to decide if he’s been given a complete explanation on the administration’s handling of the controversial south Charleswood corridor study.

Bowman said he needs time to consider the explanation provided Wednesday by City of Winnipeg CAO Doug McNeil to the executive policy committee.

“I want to consider what the CAO had to say today and go from there,” Bowman told reporters. “I think (McNeil has) taken some positive steps. I’ll have further dialogue with my council colleagues and with the CAO to see if more can be done in terms of providing accountability. I’m certainly going to continue those discussions. We’ll make decisions on the floor of council and in committee as we deem appropriate.”

Bowman and his EPC members were expecting an accounting from McNeil on many aspects of the south Charleswood corridor.

McNeil told EPC Wednesday that city staff and the consultant had erred by failing to tell residents the extension of the Sterling Lyon Parkway had been chosen as the preferred option for the corridor route.

“So we dropped the ball in, a) it wasn’t recognized that we had a brand-new option that the public didn’t see, and b) we didn’t take that back to the public immediately. That’s my conclusion,” McNeil said.

McNeil said the engineers appeared to be motivated to find the best engineering solution, adding the extension had been contemplated by civic officials in 1994.

“The current public service didn’t dream up this route south of Wilkes Avenue,” McNeil said. “That option has been around for a long time.”

However, McNeil didn’t provide answers or deal with the issues that area Coun. Marty Morantz and others said they wanted questioned, including:

• Who authorized the sending of letters to about 96 residents that their properties had been targeted for purchase and/or expropriation?

• Who authorized the consulting firm WSP Global (formerly known as MMM Group) to apply for an environmental licence application for a proposed southwest extension of Sterling Lyon Parkway, known as the “rogue route,” that had not been approved by council or seen by area residents?

• Why did the MMM Group hire an appraiser to get values only for properties for the Sterling Lyon Parkway rogue route in December 2015?

• If MMM Group was aware of the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension route in December 2015, why wasn’t it presented to the area residents at a public open house in January 2016, along with the other three options?

Morantz, who previously said he had lost faith in the administration over its handling of the issue and wanted both the city engineer and consultant on the project replaced, said he’s done his best to get to the bottom of the issue and won’t pursue it any further.

“I am still interested in finding out how all this happened,” Morantz said in an email exchange with the Free Press. “I feel I have done my job as city councillor by raising important questions that I have posed in public meetings to the CAO.”

Former city councillor Garth Steek, who has spoken publicly in support of the area residents, appeared at the EPC meeting to criticize the administration and said Bowman and the councillors on EPC need to get to the bottom of the issue.

“The ubiquitous hand of the administration is all over this file — the condescension, the arrogance is profound,” Steek told EPC. “The secrecy that is part of the culture here is profoundly wrong. It has to be addressed. It has to start with leadership from (Bowman) and the members of the executive policy committee. I would say to the CAO, get control of these bureaucrats.”

Steek said the decisions taken on the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension can’t be blamed on a low-level engineer, adding senior officials in both the departments of public works and property and development had to have been aware of developments and must have approved the actions taken.

“It is inconceivable, Mr. Mayor, that somebody in the lower tier of property and development or public works authorized this,” Steek said. “Somebody much higher up the chain did so. We should all be very concerned as to who that was and what the motivation was.”

Steek said residents across the city are concerned over how the administration tried to bulldoze the south Charleswood residents, adding that if council fails to find out who was responsible he predicted they will be held accountable on election day.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca