Council votes to put police parking plan into action

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This article was published 21/09/2022 (826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A plan to devote one floor of the Millennium Library Parkade to safe parking for police is rolling forward.

On Thursday, city council cast a final 13-3 vote in favour of the idea, which was designed to settle a long-standing union grievance. The grievance alleges the city and Winnipeg Police Service have failed to provide safe and secure parking for the personal vehicles of cops and civilian staff who work at WPS headquarters at 245 Smith St.

Many council members who voted in favour of the plan argued rejecting it would have left taxpayers at risk of paying for a much more expensive solution, by allowing the matter to proceed to arbitration.

“If you vote no, you’re saying ‘I want to gamble and I’ll send the bill to the next council,’” said Coun. Brian Mayes.

The municipal election is Oct. 26. In its wake, Winnipeg will have a new mayor, and 13 of 15 wards are being contested.

Council’s approval of the plan clears the way to provide 264 parking stalls, which WPS members would pay $275 per space per month to rent. If demand falls short of all spaces, no changes will be made to the downtown parkade.

Now that council has approved the deal, the grievance will be dropped whether WPS members show sufficient demand for the spots or not.

A previous tied vote by the executive policy committee meeting on the plan, which equated to a loss, cast its future in question. However, during council’s Thursday meeting only Couns. Sherri Rollins and Matt Allard joined Mayor Brian Bowman to oppose the idea.

Rollins expressed concern devoting the spaces solely to WPS would leave less parking available for the public.

“This is a parkade for a library, our flagship library in the system. This is a parkade that Jets (fans) use,” she said.

However, Mayes warned police would also still require parking outside of the parkade, if council quashed the deal.

“If we lose… we’ll have to find hundreds of parking spaces in the downtown, possibly at greater cost,” he said.

The Winnipeg Police Association union said the lack of safe parking has resulted in dozens of dangerous incidents since 2015, including a stabbing, an attempted shooting, multiple assaults and cases of vehicle sabotage.

However, Bowman said he’s been reassured WPS has taken steps to mitigate the safety risks to its members. The mayor said the plan’s cost was a key reason he opposed it.

“Over the next 10 years, this is more than a million-dollar investment… It’s a lot of money that I didn’t feel was fair or reasonable to taxpayers.”

The city expects to lose about $95,600 of revenue each year due to the changes, while another $200,000 will be spent to modify the parkade floor to allow card access to WPS members only. The costs still require approval through the 2023 budget process.

In a written statement following the vote, the police union welcomed the decision.

“Safe working conditions are a core responsibility for every employer, including the City of Winnipeg. The lack of secure parking downtown has been a long-term concern for our membership, and there have been a number of serious incidents where WPS members and staff have been targeted by criminal elements. The solution that was approved by city council today to finally resolve the issue was the result of a collaborative negotiation process involving the management of the WPA, the WPS, and the city administration,” the statement said.

As a result of Thursday’s vote, the union has 90 days to determine if there is enough interest to claim the spots.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Joyanne loves to tell the stories of this city, especially when politics is involved. Joyanne became the city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2020.

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