Canadian municipalities in ‘ridiculous’ predicament

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2016 (3448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It may have been the first time a famous politician chided a journalist for trying to end an interview too early.

This week, Calgary’s popular Mayor Naheed Nenshi was kind enough to sit down for a live webcast interview at the Free Press News Café. In town for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities national conference, Nenshi agreed to talk about the challenges he faces in Calgary, a dynamic city in the grips of a prolonged petroleum-fuelled recession.

Nenshi had things to say about Winnipeg as well. In fact, when offered a chance to wrap up the webcast, he dared the host (me) to ask him about one of Winnipeg’s most divisive political issues: the pedestrian barriers at Portage Avenue and Main Street.

Nenshi was staying at the Fairmont Hotel and thus had a front-row view of the ugly concrete barriers that keep pedestrians from crossing one of Canada’s most famous intersections. As a preface, he admitted it’s rarely a good idea to wade into “deeply contentious local politics” when he visits another city. But then — sporting a wry smile — did so anyway.

“That is not only a pedestrian-unfriendly environment. It is, in fact, the most hostile pedestrian environment I have seen in any place in Canada. And boy, oh boy — it is the main intersection of Canada, Portage and Main. Let’s get people on it.”

And with that, Nenshi crossed “wade uninvited into contentious local political issue” off his list of things to do in Winnipeg.

Fortunately, that is not the only local issue Nenshi tackled. Although “local” is a qualified term, given that Nenshi faces many of the same challenges Mayor Brian Bowman faces here in Winnipeg. As a result, he is not afraid to draw parallels between his travails and those of his fellow big-city mayors.

For example, Nenshi and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson have been fencing with the Alberta government for years to get a new legal and fiscal framework for their cities.

Nenshi said it has been a long and frustrating exercise, complicated in large part by the fact that in his six years in office, there have been five Alberta premiers. However, Alberta’s NDP government agreed in January to create a cabinet committee to study a new legislative framework for municipalities. Although there is a lot of spadework left to do, Nenshi said he was hopeful some progress would be made in time for municipal elections in the fall of 2017.

What exactly do the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton want? At the top of the list is access to new revenue streams that will reduce the current reliance on property taxes.

Nenshi said this could be done in several different ways. The province could introduce amendments to allow the cities to impose new municipal taxes and levies currently not permitted under founding legislation. Or, it could divert to municipalities a fixed share of sales or income taxes.

How desperate is Nenshi to move away from funding city services and infrastructure through property taxes? He said he would be willing to make significant reductions in property tax rates in exchange for a formal, permanent share of income tax. “I would take that deal in a minute,” he said.

It’s likely Bowman would take that deal in a Winnipeg minute as well.

Bowman has been fighting a nearly identical battle with the province, and to date has achieved about the same level of results. He is, however, still fighting the good fight.

Recently, Bowman announced a task force to study the creation of “regulatory growth fees” to be charged to developers to cover collateral costs created by new development. However, the new Progressive Conservative government has said unequivocally it will not approve new municipal taxes or fees, and there is some question whether Winnipeg is empowered to proceed on its own.

Nenshi called this situation “ridiculous,” noting many municipalities across the country are trapped in the same predicament: they need new revenue streams to ease the burden on property owners, but are prevented from creating them by the provinces. That has left municipal leaders such as Bowman facing a delicate political dilemma.

For example, in the wake of the sale of MTS to Bell, Bowman said it was probably time to increase the tax on underground telecommunication infrastructure. The privatized MTS benefited from a law that limited the taxes charged on underground wires. Bowman would like to increase those charges so they are consistent with other cities, but then admitted in the same breath he wasn’t going to stomp his feet and hold his breath waiting for Premier Brian Pallister to agree to the necessary legislative changes.

Bowman’s politically mature pragmatism should be applauded. It is also, however, an extremely depressing image: a mayor who really wants to modernize his revenue streams being forced to wave the white flag with a premier who, like premiers before him, is brushing aside more progressive solutions for purely selfish political reasons.

It is unlikely that Nenshi, as charismatic and earnest as he is, has much influence with a premier in another province. However, as Nenshi likes to point out, he leads a city that has more people than five provinces, and very nearly equal to the population of Manitoba. That has to count for something.

Nenshi often likes to tell people Canada is facing a pressing need to “modernize the ways our cities work.” And that a failure to confront and engage on this need may lead to the destruction of cities as we know them.

On behalf of all the Canadians who live in those cities, let’s hope the premiers are listening.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca