State of the mayor address

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/02/2011 (5358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Sam Katz said nothing of substance in his seventh State of the City speech on Friday, leaving the impression of a city adrift. Almost 100 days after he was re-elected, the mayor was expected to outline where the city stands today and where he thought it might be in the next four years, but it was an opportunity declined.

Instead, the business audience was offered an inventory of developments in the city over the last 10 years, and a list of things to hope for, such as a waterpark and a new convention centre. It was almost as if he had run out of ideas, or perhaps that he feared the city is hitting the financial wall.

He said the decade ahead “will be a defining period in our city’s history” but neglected to elaborate.

The mayor’s complete silence on the future of rapid transit was worrisome in itself. Is light rail still a go? Is bus rapid transit and the money that came with it gone for good? When will the community know what happens next?

The mayor needed to offer some insight on these questions, particularly since the vision of light rail was a major part of the platform that separated him from his rival, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who wanted to complete the BRT route to the University of Manitoba.

The two candidates also disagreed about taxes. Ms. Wasylycia-Leis promised to raise taxes, saying there was no other way for the city to get the things it wanted. Mr. Katz dodged the question of tax increases, but vowed to secure a new deal from the province on revenue sharing, or become Premier Greg Selinger’s worst nightmare in the process of trying.

Well, Mayor Katz had the perfect bully pulpit on Friday in front of an audience of entrepreneurs, civil servants and politicians from all levels of government, but the mayor chose instead to daydream.

The best he could do was say he was waiting for a report on infrastructure funding, and that he had asked a civic committee to review the services provided by the city.

The mayor was critical of the province over a decision that compels the city to spend an extra $350 million in sewage treatment to protect Lake Winnipeg, but it seemed he was avoiding the larger question about the need for a new political and economic relationship between the city and the province.

The next decade may be critical for Winnipeg, as the mayor said, but it’s not starting out with a clear idea of where we are going and how we intend to get there.