Mayoral candidate Murray pledges deeper city governance review

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This article was published 21/07/2022 (791 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayoral candidate Glen Murray wants to resolve the “overall dysfunction” he sees in Winnipeg’s governance system by holding a sweeping review by an external party.

In a 13-point plan, Murray said a working group — including a member he would ask the Manitoba premier to appoint — would be put together and hold its first public outreach session within 100 days of a win in the Oct. 26 municipal vote.

“The group will be looking at everything from authority being aligned with responsibility, where there are shortcomings in that area, about financial situations,” Murray said at a news conference Friday morning on city hall grounds.

The working group would be tasked with undertaking a review of and providing insight on how multiple governance structures across the city could be improved, including the possible merging of the CentreVenture Development Corp. and Winnipeg Parking Authority, establishing an independent taxicab board and assessing the roles of senior city administration.

As part of this plan, Murray said, as mayor, he’d work to repair “fractious and difficult” relations between the province and the city, citing the recent comments by Premier Heather Stefanson supporting the Winnipeg Police Association while criticizing Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth as an example of how Winnipeggers were left without a unified front.

“I will not have public fights with the premier,” said the 64-year-old politician, who held the Winnipeg mayor’s chair from 1998 to 2004. “If we have disagreements, you probably won’t hear about it.”

Several other candidates were quick to criticize Murray for suggesting the city undertake a full review within months of completing a similar one. Winnipeg was subject of a governance structure review from 2019 to 2021, which was accepted by city council in January, and an implementation plan is currently in progress.

“Launching a second governance review within months of completing the first one would be a wasteful exercise that will slow down the implementation of necessary changes to city hall’s processes and procedures,” mayoral candidate Coun. Scott Gillingham said in a statement. “And scrapping two years of council-directed and -approved work to simply satisfy one candidate’s campaign promise would be a governance problem in itself.”

Fellow candidate Rick Shone questioned if Murray was aware the review had happened at all.

“If not, then he hasn’t done his homework. If yes, is he proposing that the city spend more money on outside consultants to undergo another costly report less than a year after completing the last one?” the business owner said.

Murray responded he had read the review city had done and felt it didn’t go in depth on economic development and structural reform, likening it to “rearranging the deck chairs” rather than making substantive change.

“I think there’s some good things in there,” he said. “I don’t think it’s big enough, and I think it’s too internal.”

Murray added he wanted a review of the governance between the Winnipeg Police Board, WPS chief and other relevant groups to build recommendations for reforms to the city’s current police governance model.

Board chairman Coun. Markus Chambers noted a review of the Police Services Act between the province and stakeholders is currently underway.

“The Winnipeg Police Board is only as effective as effective as the individuals that are appointed to it,” he said. “So it is that collaboration between the city and the province that needs to take place to ensure that the appointees are representational of a variety of stakeholder groups and ethnicities here in the city.”

Chambers, who has thrown his support behind Gillingham’s bid, said Murray hadn’t reached out to him about his reform plan.

Murray said the current review isn’t moving fast enough.

“It’s Winnipeg’s police service, it’s about safety, crime is the largest issue. These governments have been around, most of them for a decade, at least, and they’ve had lots of time to do it,” he said. “And I don’t see that happening.”

Murray, Gillingham and Shone are three of 12 registered mayoral candidates for the Oct. 26 election. The list includes: Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Shaun Loney, Jenny Motkaluk, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Jessica Peebles, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca