No bump for ward allowances

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This article was published 18/11/2020 (1929 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City of Winnipeg councillor ward allowances won’t be rising any time soon, though they may be audited less often.

The executive policy committee voted Wednesday to reject a proposed $35,000 allowance increase, which a lower committee wanted full city council to consider within the 2021 budget process.

Instead, EPC opted to take no action, which only Coun. Matt Allard opposed.

Allard (St. Boniface) has argued more money is needed to retain key staff and better communicate with residents. The ward allowance for 2020 provides each councillor $84,924 to cover everything from office supplies to executive assistants.

Mayor Brian Bowman said the allowance hike isn’t a budget priority, as the city copes with COVID-19 pandemic-related revenue losses and other financial pressures.

“I haven’t heard any compelling reasons why we would (increase this)… Certainly, I have other priorities than increasing the amount that councillors can spend,” said Bowman.

EPC did approve a call for budget deliberations to consider reducing how often councillor expenses are audited, which only Bowman and Coun. Scott Gillingham (St. James) voted against.

Supporters of the motion argue randomly selecting council members to have expenses audited, instead of auditing every councillor on an annual basis, would still provide plenty of oversight. Such expenses would also still be published online.

The mayor said he’d prefer to see all financial oversight remain in place: “I think annual audits are appropriate to safeguard taxpayers’ interests.”

Meanwhile, the committee cast a 4-3 vote to reject the hotly debated Parker lands housing development.

The mayor joined Couns. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre), Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) and Allard in the rejection; Brian Mayes (St. Vital), Gillingham and Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) were on the approval side.

City planning officials also called for the rejection, arguing the proposal doesn’t meet land-use criteria for a transit-oriented development and offers too little detail.

“Until those requirements that the public service has set out in their report are met, I’ll vote to support the public service’s recommendation,” said Bowman.

By contrast, Mayes argued council is long overdue to support the project that would add up to 1,918 housing units on about 47 acres of the south Winnipeg land.

Andrew Marquess, owner of Parker developer Gem Equities, said the proposal is in the city’s best interest, since it would support the nearby $467-million southwest rapid transitway and utilize other existing infrastructure.

“This supports that investment. It provides revenue to the city, both short and long term. It will provide ridership to the transit corridor,” Marquess told the Free Press.

The development proposal still awaits a final city council vote.

EPC opted to unanimously approve a call to pursue major changes within the 911 response system to better direct non-urgent calls.

The city will study a new model that pairs crisis workers with police officers to answer some calls. It will also plan a system that enables 911 dispatchers to directly transfer the lowest-risk calls to 211, 311 and Health Links.

EPC approved a call to build a $25.7-million new North End police station at the Old Exhibition Grounds, pending a final council vote.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga