Mayor wants Winnipeggers to question MLAs' commitment to city with 'every pothole you hit'

Mayor Brian Bowman continues to place blame for Winnipeg's rough roads on the provincial government.

"For every pothole you hit, ask yourself, is your MLA standing up for you?" he said Tuesday morning on CBC Manitoba's Information Radio.

Bowman sent a letter to each Winnipeg member of the legislative assembly on Friday, asking them — regardless of political stripe — to push the provincial government to give the city $40 million for road renewal, funds the mayor says the city spent in the belief the money would be coming from the province.

"Road renewal remains a top priority for Winnipeggers, and this letter is to encourage you to put political party interests second, and the people you serve in Winnipeg first," the letter says.

"The provincial decision to not fully fund capital commitments for roads in 2018 created a $40-million funding hole for the City of Winnipeg's road program."

Bowman has continually said the province committed to giving the city $40 million for road repairs in the 2018-19 fiscal year but never paid up. It's a message he delivered in his early March state of the city speech, again after the provincial government released its latest budget in March, and multiple times throughout the city budget process.

For every pothole you hit, ask yourself, is your MLA standing up for you?- Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman

"I am requesting your assistance concerning this matter by speaking up for Winnipeg residents and your constituents," he wrote in the Friday letter to MLAs.

The mayor says the province made a five-year commitment to $250 million for road repairs, and the 2018-19 municipal budget included a final $40-million payment. The 2019-20 budget was derailed by the fact that money was never delivered, Bowman has said.

"We decided to reduce the road spending as a result for this year and for next year," he said Tuesday morning.

However, the repair deficit might not be as great as feared because Bowman hopes to use federal gas tax funds to fill the budget hole.

The city's executive policy committee passed a motion later Tuesday to use half the $40 million the city will be getting in additional federal gas tax funding for road renewals and active transportation projects, and $2.5 million for road safety measures. The rest will be dedicated to roadwork and active transportation projects in 2020, the motion says.

That motion will go to city council for approval.

Spending problem

Manitoba Finance Minister Scott Fielding has said the province met its obligations to the city, and the municipal government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

A letter sent to the mayor by Municipal Relations Minister Jeff Wharton in mid-March says the province was very clear in 2017 that it would no longer participate in grants-based municipal funding, but deliver unconditional funds in what the letter calls "consolidated basket funding" — capital funds, outside of large existing projects such as the Waverley Underpass and the Southwest Transitway, would be allocated to the city as a single amount.

"There is no 2014 'legal agreement' on provincial funding for city roads," the letter says. "There was a political commitment by the prior provincial government — late in its fourth and final mandate — to provide funding."

A spokesperson for the municipal relations minister said Tuesday afternoon that it's time for the mayor to "move forward."

"With large surpluses, substantial financial reserves, unnecessary tax increases and a top-heavy administration, the mayor's continued threats regarding service levels and further property tax increases are unhelpful and seem to lack consideration for affordability for city residents," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

"It is time to move forward and focus on working together in the interest of delivering positive outcomes for taxpayers."

Bowman says there's been a shift in the province's logic from saying they've met their commitments to saying they aren't bound by another government's commitments.

"Now what we're hearing is that well, it was a political promise of the previous government," but the current provincial government met that commitment for two years, Bowman said Tuesday.

"So we obviously budgeted for the final and the fifth year, and we built the roads and repaired them and spent the money with the contractors last year."

He's asked for a detailed accounting of how the province feels it has met its commitments, but says he'd prefer to meet with Premier Brian Pallister about the issue.

"That would be my first preference. Let's sit down and let's have some dialogue on it, but unfortunately that option has not been provided by the premier."