5 treats to watch for at the pre-Halloween council meeting
Growth fees are main treat at midpoint of Winnipeg's 14th city council
In only five days, ghoulish creatures will wander the streets of Winnipeg.
If you can't wait for Halloween, far less terrifying apparitions will materialize Wednesday in the council chamber at city hall.
Here are five things to watch out for as Winnipeg's elected officials gather for their October meeting:
1. To fee or not to fee
The main event at city hall Wednesday is the debate about Winnipeg growth fees, which Mayor Brian Bowman's administration has tried to rebrand as "impact fees."
The plan before council calls for fees to be imposed on new residential developments in a handful of areas at the fringes of the city on May 1. They amount to roughly $500 for every 100 square feet of residential space.
The plan also calls for the fees to be imposed on commercial, industrial, institutional and office developments in 2018, while older residential neighbourhoods will start getting dinged in 2019.
The plan faces vehement opposition from developers but is poised to be approved, as no fewer than nine members of council have stated they intend to vote in favour of growth fees.
Four others say they plan to vote against the fees, while three have not made their intentions known to CBC News.
A simple majority of council is required for the vote to pass. Bowman, however, said he is not counting his chickens just yet.
"I don't want to presuppose the will of council," the mayor said on Tuesday. "I'm hoping we'll receive support from council to proceed with something that I think is in the long-term best interests for Winnipeggers and for Winnipeg taxpayers."
2. Trash talk on chamber floor
The undercard at Wednesday's council meeting will be the debate over a pair of new long-term waste-collection contracts.
Right now, Emterra Environmental collects recyclables from residential households across Winnipeg and garbage from three quadrants of the city, while Progressive Waste Solutions empties the rest of the grey bins.
The contracts on the table would allow two new waste-collection contractors, Miller Waste Systems and GFL Environmental, start doing this work on a nearly 50-50 basis, beginning in October 2017.
No fewer than five members of council plan to vote against the contracts on the basis the city did not give due consideration to the idea of in-house collection, using members of the city's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500.
3. Look, up in the air
The quirkiest report before council today is a drone-regulation motion authored by St. James-Brooklands Coun. Scott Gillingham, whose ward includes Richardson International Airport.
Gillingham's motion calls for the city to study the feasibility of regulating the sale and use of unmanned aerial vehicles, whose improper use has ran afoul of Air Canada pilots and other aviation officials.
No opposition is expected, which means there's little chance any councillors will drone on about the issue.
4. Hints of an EPC shuffle
Along with happening right before Halloween, the October council meeting precedes a ceremonial council gathering called the annual organizational meeting. This is where committee duties are doled out to councillors for the following 12 months.
This year's organizational meeting, slated for Nov. 2, also happens to arrive at the middle of council's four-year term. This has led to speculation Bowman may shuffle the membership of the executive policy committee, which functions as his inner circle.
One potential candidate for ejection is South Winnipeg-St. Norbert Coun. Janice Lukes, who plans to vote against growth fees Wednesday. But it's unclear who would replace the public works chair on EPC, given that council is flush with rookies.
5. Portents of impending budget
On Nov. 22, Bowman and council finance chair Marty Morantz (Charleswood-Tuxedo) will present the 2017 budget, Winnipeg's spending plan for the next year. The budget is not yet set in stone, but the time it takes to check all the numbers within it demands the budget to be all but finished right now.
This will create an interesting dynamic during Question Period, when the mayor can not credibly claim to be unaware what is and is not in the budget. At this point, it's all but set in stone.
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