Winnipeg capital budget boosts roads spending

Winnipeg city council plans to tackle some major roadwork this year — from rebuilding the Disraeli Bridge to widening McGillivray Boulevard —using provincial and federal money as well as some public-private partnerships.

The city's capital budget, which was presented in council Friday afternoon, proposes spending nearly $425 million in 2007. That is more than double original estimates.

Council will vote on the budget on Jan. 25.

"This budget is bigger than it's ever been," said Old Kildonan Coun. Mike O'Shaughnessy, who chairs the city's finance standing committee, on Friday.

O'Shaughnessy said the budget aims to catch up on some long-overdue work.

"We've fallen further and further behind every year since 1972. This is the first year that we're minimally catching up," he said.

"We need continued support from the federal and provincial governments to go on with what we're doing. And that catching up just a wee bit, we did that by doubling our capital budget."

The city is taking advantage of upcoming cash infusions of hundreds of millions of dollarsfrom the federal and provincial governments over the next six years.

The budget also factors in several projects being done through public-private partnerships (P3), which Mayor Sam Katz has touted as a way to get capital projects done quickly without investing significant tax dollars up front.

Under a P3 arrangement, a private contractor builds, runs or maintains a capital project, and the city pays that company an annual fee.

'P3 is the best way to go': mayor

"There's very little doubt in my mind that for certain situations, the P3 is the best way to go," Katz said Friday, citing the renewal of the Charleswood Bridgeas an example.

"The one thing I can tell you: we cannot afford to sit around and do nothing. That's been done for a long time. That doesn't work."

The proposed capital budget includes three P3s: the rehabilitation of the Disraeli Bridge, the widening of McGillivray Boulevard, and the construction of three new police stations.

The budget also indicates work will begin on widening St. Anne's Road and extending the Chief Peguis Trail.