Marked difference between candidates’ plans, wishful thinking By: Tom Brodbeck Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2022 (806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A chicken in every pot or a shovel full of asphalt in every pot hole is great political fodder at the door during election campaigns. However, unless candidates can tell voters how they plan to pay for campaign promises, they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Winnipeggers have been inundated with ambitious plans over the past several weeks in the 2022 civic election campaign on how to “fix” soaring crime rates, patch-up crumbling roads, tackle addictions and homelessness, and rejuvenate Winnipeg’s failing transit system. What’s been missing from these plans is a detailed financial blueprint.

Everyone wants better infrastructure, more bike paths, less crime and reliable transit. There are no shortages of good ideas on how to make improvements in all those areas. However, they all cost money. So far, most mayoral candidates haven’t told the public how they plan to fund them.

It was refreshing, then, to see at least two of them release their financial plans Tuesday.

Shaun Loney and Scott Gillingham released detailed revenue and expenditure plans to support their mayoral campaign pledges. Both include some questionable assumptions. However, they do provide voters with a framework that shows the ideas are at least doable under the City of Winnipeg’s current budgetary constraints.

Gillingham assumes, for example, the federal and provincial governments would contribute to widening Route 90 and extending Chief Peguis Trail (two of his major capital spending pledges), which is far from certain.

Loney assumes hiring 30 peace officers to ride Winnipeg Transit buses to improve safety (at an estimated cost of $3 million a year) could be paid for through fares from higher ridership and less fare evasion.

One area both seem to agree on is the need to raise property taxes.

Gillingham is proposing a 3.5 per cent annual increase and a one-time frontage levy hike of $1.50 a foot. Loney is pledging a 3.7 per cent annual property tax increase, with no change to the frontage levy.

Loney said a frontage levy hike would disproportionately harm owners of lower-assessed properties; Gillingham says the increase is necessary to ensure the money goes towards infrastructure (which it must under current law). Both points are valid.

The question now is, where are the fully costed plans, including supporting revenue projections, for the other nine mayoral candidates?

They’ve collectively made a ton of campaign announcements over the past several weeks.

Glen Murray has promised a fully costed plan, but still hasn’t delivered. The former Winnipeg mayor (1998-2004) has pledged massive new spending in areas such as transit, city beautification, mental health and policing, but has provided no details on how to pay for them.

Mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk has pledged to freeze taxes. That would mean the 2.33 per cent property tax increase built into the city’s multi-year budget for road repair and bus rapid transit capital repayment would disappear. She has not said how she would replace that lost income.

Motkaluk also promised to eliminate photo radar ticketing, but hasn’t said where the money would come from to replace that revenue. She has pledged more money for the arts, more funding for spray pads, and unspecified resources to help turn vacant buildings into homes for the homeless. However, none of it has been costed and there are no details in her 19-page platform on where the money would come from to pay for those commitments.

Instead, Motkaluk claims she can find enough savings by freezing the salaries of all city workers earning over $75,000 (which she couldn’t do because they work under collective agreements), cut funding for the assessment department in half, and eliminate “scope creep” (cut programs she doesn’t believe the city should be spending money on, such as charitable donations).

None of the above have been costed. It’s lazy.

Kevin Klein said last week at a mayoral forum he would freeze taxes until he was satisfied spending was under control. The candidate changed his tune this week, now saying he would raise taxes by 2.33 per cent in 2023. Either way, he hasn’t costed out any of his promises.

Voters deserve at least some type of financial blueprint from candidates to support their campaign platforms. Without it, their election promises are little more than wishful thinking.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca