PCs plowing ahead with big changes, but so far no fix for some foundational issues — like IGF and police HQ
In Opposition, Tories demanded an audit of building debacles. So where is it?
Imagine writing someone a cheque for more than $300 million to build your dream home, only to find within months of moving in, it leaks. A lot. So much so that if you don't fix it, the water will seep its way into the foundation and slowly eat the core of your building.
It costs millions to fix.
Wouldn't you be angry? Wouldn't you want to know what happened? And try to find out who's to blame?
From the start of Brian Pallister's election campaign through the days after his government's second budget, he and his team have vowed countless times their goal was to "fix the mess" left behind by the NDP.
But standing on the twin towers of "fixing the mess" and a pledge for an "open and transparent" government might mean more than just a fiscal change in direction.
In less than a year the WRHA has been reorganized, major social and cultural projects have been put on hold, plans for new health facilities has been shelved and there is legislation to impose a wage freeze on public sector workers.
These may all be necessary realities of a deficit-laden province or the ideological choices of the government in power. It actually matters little with a huge majority and continued strong results in polls. Voters voted.
But is it unreasonable to ask exactly what went wrong with perhaps two of the most signature public works projects in Manitoba in decades?
The quagmire of the police headquarters project admittedly has been the subject of city audits and an ongoing RCMP investigation. But there are so many lingering questions about how a building renovation for what should be the most secure facility in Winnipeg went so terribly over budget and under such controversy.
The stench of that one project lingers over government's ability to manage elsewhere, and that means any government at every level. Not just the city of Winnipeg. Cynicism about governments doesn't always make distinctions about which one or when they were in power.
Yet Mayor Brian Bowman's call for a public inquiry into the fiasco has been met at the legislature with what is tantamount to a yawn.
Leaking into itself
In comparison to the police HQ mess, the Investors Group Field debacle is by far a simpler situation to wrap one's head around.
Virtually every dime spent building it, every seat and concession stand, came right from taxpayers.
It is the most expensive, most high-profile sports facility built in Manitoba in generations and is supposed to carry the ball for the next 50 years. But somehow it was built with little regard for our winter climate; it doesn't drain properly and, mind-bogglingly, it leaks into itself.
The cost of the fix stands at $21.4 million so far and it will take a further two years to complete the repairs. Drive by the stadium right now and you'll see the guts of the first level concourse ripped open to undo the mess. They did the upper decks last year.
The project is now the focus of a king-high lawsuit between Triple B Stadium Inc. (the consortium of civic and provincial governments, the Winnipeg Football Club and the U of M) and contractor Stuart Olson and architect Ray Wan.
The pace of that legal action is glacially slow, and may be the subject of a settlement where few answers are given.
But it could have been ground zero for a plan to re-establish public confidence in governments.
It's not my fault
The argument it happened on someone else's watch doesn't wash. Not for the stadium and not for the police HQ. It's called accountability.
There was a moment on the stadium file when accountability mattered to the Tories. In opposition. When they sensed the NDP was liable for the stadium mess. Back then, they called for a deep dive into how this could happen, and they made some noise regarding what they would do about it, after being elected.
To be fair, it is a young administration. A late-day response this week from the government suggests the public may, someday, get answers on the stadium. But it looks like the decision to dig deeper won't be made by Premier Pallister.
"We will work with the Auditor General to make sure Manitoba taxpayers are provided with a full explanation of how funds were spent and why costs were allowed to increase far beyond estimates," a spokesperson for Sport and Culture Minister Rochelle Squires wrote to CBC News.
The PCs are, right now, asking for the public's confidence to make huge systemic changes and tinker with convoluted health-care policy. But we're still waiting to hear when, and how, these leftover project management messes will be cleaned up.
"Doing nothing was not an option," Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen told CBC last week, adding the province couldn't continue to pour money into a system that wasn't working. "Things were not going to improve if we didn't change things."
He could have been talking about the stadium mess.
So why aren't they?
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