Checking in with Whyte Ridge Coun. Marty Morantz

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2016 (3592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since his fall 2014 election as Winnipeg city councillor for the Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge ward, Marty Morantz has experienced a major career shift and has been involved in some challenging issues under the media spotlight, such as the city’s 2016 operating and capital budget.  

What compels someone to jump into the world of civic politics, and how successful has he been in implementing some of his campaign promises?

According to Coun. Morantz, politics and law were common topics of conversation around the family supper table when he was growing up in River Heights, primarily due to his father’s keen interest.

As a youth Marty worked on several political campaigns and earned university degrees in political science and law before settling in the Charleswood-Tuxedo area to practise law.

Eventually he was in a position to be able to give back to the community, through funding and/or volunteering to work on issues such as care for the elderly and people with special needs.

In 2011 he decided to run for office as a provincial Progressive Conservative candidate in River Heights. While not successful in the provincial election, three years later he successfully ran in the civic election.

Coun. Morantz is now more than a year into his term, with key roles as chair of the City finance committee and as a member of the executive policy committee, involving a high level of public and media scrutiny.  

Two of the key issues he raised while running for office were dealing with residential traffic in his ward and improving fiscal responsibility.  

Since his election, he has celebrated the commercial and retail development in his ward, but he committed to addressing the frustrations associated with increased traffic on local residential streets that comes with this development.

The Waverley Underpass Project (with construction planned for early 2017) will help alleviate problems, and progress is being made on the William Clement Parkway extension he had advocated for while running for election, including a preliminary design study and ongoing open houses.  

Fiscal responsibility is something being tested in the development of the 2016 budget, and the challenge in the deficit between the cost required to deal with aging infrastructure and the revenue being generated to address these needs.  

One option being explored to offset municipal tax increases is to have the province allocate a larger portion of its infrastructure tax dollars towards addressing this issue.  

As he moves through his second year on the job, Coun. Morantz appears to be open and transparent in trying to address the important issues and challenges he raised in 2014.  

Nick Barnes is a community correspondent for Whyte Ridge.