Mayoral candidate Gord Steeves pledges to freeze property taxes
Mayoral candidate Brian Bowman pooh-poohs Steeves' 'fire sale'
Winnipeg mayoral candidate Gord Steeves says if he's elected, he'll freeze property taxes for four years and sell off city assets to fix infrastructure.
Steeves said he's hearing from families fed up with paying high property taxes and wants to address the city's infrastructure woes by using funds raised from selling off city assets.
But fellow candidate Brian Bowman isn't impressed with the plan.
Bowman said the city's infrastructure is in shambles and so is city hall.
To fix that, Bowman said he would create something called the BuildWinnipeg partnership to coordinate planning for transportation projects — roads, transit and active transportation. City staff and stakeholders would be included in the partnership.
A BuildWinnipeg fund would merge all of the cash for transportation-related projects and direct it towards a 10-year plan to fix crumbling infrastructure.
Bowman in a shot against his mayoralty rival, Gord Steeves, saying he doesn't support Steeves' plan to sell off city assets to fix infrastructure.
Bowman called that a "fire sale" and once properties such as Millennium Parkade are sold, they are gone forever.
He also promised to establish an office of public engagement to end some of the bickering that happens on city projects. The city can't coordinate between its own departments, other levels of governments and external stakeholders, he said.
The office of public engagement will coordinate the dialogue between these groups.