Selinger says he and Bowman share several priorities

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This article was published 23/10/2014 (3785 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A change in leadership at city hall may signal a new, improved relationship between the province and Winnipeg.

Premier Greg Selinger said Thursday that he and mayor-elect Brian Bowman share several priorities, including a focus on infrastructure, safe neighbourhoods and rapid transit.

“Mayor Bowman got a mandate and that mandate focuses on things that we believe in and that gives us a lot of common ground,” Selinger told reporters after announcing a $2 million expansion to the welding shop at Sturgeon Heights Collegiate.

The premier faced questions on whether the civic election had been a rebuke of the provincial NDP. Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who appeared to lead the mayoral race until near the end, has strong NDP ties as a former provincial cabinet minister and member of parliament. She received help in her campaign from several people with close links to the provincial government.

“We know that some people felt jolted by the raising of the PST by one point and I take responsibility for that,” the premier offered.

But he quickly added that the public is also clamouring for investments in infrastructure. And he noted that this was a major theme in the civic election.

“We’re in a position where we can work more closely with the city to be able to advance that infrastructure agenda and provide good jobs for young people in Manitoba and I’m looking forward to that opportunity,” he said.

Bowman and Selinger met briefly at the legislative building on Thursday.

The mayor-elect said during the campaign he was confident he can work with the NDP government to secure the necessary changes to implement his initiatives.

Before their meeting, Bowman said he was going to tell Selinger that the relationship between city hall and the province is important.

“We need to work together.”

Bowman said the one message he’s taking from his decisive victory is the mandate to pursue alternative funding formulas to finance civic government.

“We talked about a municipal sales tax, it could be income tax, it could be other forms of taxation that are going to be more effective at growing the economy in a responsible way.”

Meanwhile, Selinger, when asked to interpret Bowman’s victory, said Winnipeggers were “looking for a positive change” at city hall and they felt that Bowman represented that.

“I think people wanted to see a change in the culture at city hall and I think he was able to capture that sentiment. And we believe in that too,” he said. “We believe that we should have positive leadership at city hall and be able to work on priorities like infrastructure and safe neighbourhoods and a change in the culture there.”

Opposition Leader Brian Pallister said the mayoralty results amounted to a vote against the provincial NDP.

“I think there’s a message here, clearly a message of dissatisfaction with the current NDP government here in Manitoba,” he said. “This campaign was about many things, but it did send a message that the same old ways are not acceptable to Winnipeggers or Manitobans anymore.”

Pallister also said because of the NDP government’s poor management of the province’s finances, the City of Winnipeg recently saw its financial outlook credit rating slip to negative from stable, based on the provincial government’s performance. Moody’s Inventor Services said while Winnipeg has shown disciplined fiscal planning, the city and province are linked financially and if the provincial government’s prospects sour, so do Winnipeg’s.

Moody’s had earlier downgraded the province’s fiscal outlook out of concern the government may not balance its budget by 2016-17. The province has run deficits since 2009 and earlier pushed back a pledge to be out of the red by 2014.

“The City of Winnipeg’s credit rating just got a negative commentary because the province can’t manage its money properly,” Pallister said. “(Bowman) has got massive debt and although his hands aren’t totally tied, the rope is being prepared. As a result of provincial government mismanagement, he’s got additional debt obligations coming his way.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Aldo Santin