Winnipeg councillors call on city to free up road repair funds, restore services

A group of city councillors filed two motions today they say are designed to restore frontline services and fix Winnipeg's pothole-ridden roads.

The first motion filed by councillors Cindy Gilroy, Matt Allard, Russ Wyatt, Ross Eadie, Jason Schreyer and Shawn Dobson asks that the city free-up funds from its general reserve as soon as possible for regional and local street repair projects.

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"We really want to start fixing our roads sooner rather than later," Gilroy said Monday afternoon at city hall. "It's about getting the money in the budget a little bit faster.... Our aging streets are full of potholes and badly in need of repair."

The motion also proposes upping the city's contributions to the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation "Freedom Road" project. The city has already committed $10 million; but the motion says costs for the project have gone up dramatically. It says it's now expected to cost $46.5 million, up from the original $30 million. The motion proposes all three levels of government, contribute an additional $5.5 million to the project.

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'Vacancy management'

The second motion calls on the city to eliminate an increase in "vacancy management." They claim the city has not done a good job of filling vacant jobs after employees retire or exit a position. As a result, the councillors are asking the city to restore $3.2 million in funding to frontline services.

Allard said the group would like to see money earmarked for "corporate support services" instead diverted to frontline services.

"We have an unprecedented increase to corporate services, which is over $4 million with an additional $600,000 a year going to communications people, or as I've referred to them before  'spin doctors,'" Allard said.

"I don't want to explain to Winnipeggers why they need to lower their expectations for better services. I want to put that money … into our frontline services so we can better serve Winnipeggers."

Both motions are based on existing budget numbers and wouldn't require increasing taxes, Allard said.

"We're just suggesting the re-allocation of monies that are already in the budget, putting them to Winnipeggers' top priorities and that's fixing our roads and providing better service," Allard said.

The second motion includes a clause that calls into question the authority granted to the city's chief administrative officer (CAO). The CAO has been given the power to redistribute or restate budgets, Allard said.

"I feel that's going in the wrong direction," Allard said. "We need to have more accountability to council, not less."

Councillors have been rushed to review the preliminary 2016 budget over the last two weeks, Allard said, adding he thinks the skill sets of councillors were underused in the drafting of the budget.

Coun. Russ Wyatt echoed Allard, saying councillors have "good ideas" but haven't been able to offer input in the budget process.

"I think the process has been very exclusive," he said. "These so-called budget consultations that were done in December, which were very quick … there was very little one-on-one consultation with non-members of EPC."