Bowman’s newest deal

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/10/2014 (3781 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The day after his resounding victory in Winnipeg’s civic election, mayor-elect Brian Bowman got his first audience with Premier Greg Selinger.

It was not, in Bowman’s words, a working meeting. It was just a chance for the premier to congratulate a man who is, for now, arguably the most popular politician in Manitoba.

Selinger said he and Bowman should work well together because they support many of the same priorities. “That gives us a lot of common ground.”

Perhaps, but many of the things Bowman is looking for — particularly the legislative authority to impose new municipal taxes to reduce the emphasis on taxing property — will not go down easily with the NDP government.

The province holds the reins in all these discussions. The City of Winnipeg Act, which outlines exactly what the city can and cannot do, is a creation of the provincial legislature. Any move to a new municipal sales or income surtax, both of which Bowman has discussed, would have to be embraced by the province in a legislative amendment.

In the past, the answer from the province whenever similar proposals were floated was a curt “no.”

In the early 2000s, then-mayor Glen Murray was pushing the New Deal for municipalities. It was part of a national initiative involving the country’s big-city mayors pushing for new powers from their respective provinces.

In Manitoba, the New Deal died a quick and painful death when then-premier Gary Doer told Murray the NDP did not get elected to raise taxes. Even when Murray retooled his demands into the so-called Newer Deal — with more modest demands for a three-cent-per-litre gas tax and a greater share of federal GST revenue — Doer could not have shown less interest.

Does the same dismissive attitude still prevail on Broadway?

If anything, the current iteration of the provincial NDP government could be even more resistant to municipal demands for new powers of taxation.

With an election coming in the spring of 2016, the NDP continues to struggle to defend its ham-handed decision two years ago to raise the PST to fund infrastructure. On the heels of that messy effort, helping Winnipeg’s mayor to introduce new taxes seems to be a non-starter for a government that is overly dependent on support from Winnipeg voters to maintain its grip on power.

Is Selinger really as co-operative and open-minded as he sounded last week? Nobody from the province will discuss in any detail their appetite for Bowman’s campaign pledges, but NDP sources indicate Selinger is more willing than his predecessor to at least consider new ideas.

Bowman will have to tread lightly in warming Selinger up to the idea of turning over new powers and authorities to municipalities. Fortunately, Bowman is showing signs of borrowing heavily from similar and promising initiatives unfolding in Alberta.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, arguably the two most popular politicians in Alberta at any level of government, are currently pressing their province for new city charters that bestow a broad array of powers.

The genius in this approach is that by seeking a total reboot of the charter legislation — rather than la carte demands on specific issues — the municipal leaders are not putting the province in any political peril. They are asking for broad, general powers; what they do with those powers is really a municipal issue with little provincial blowback.

The other bit of genius here is Nenshi and Iveson are involving all municipal leaders in the charter debate. This creates a pronounced political imperative for the province. The word-of-mouth impact of a united front of Alberta’s municipal leaders is a political force that cannot be ignored.

The City of Winnipeg Act is in desperate need of modernization. Regardless of what specific powers are downloaded to municipalities, it is simply not reasonable to limit local government to a few disparate user fees and property taxes to meet the rapidly growing demands for services and infrastructure.

The province should be able to take some solace from Bowman’s victory, given the themes he pursued in his campaign. Bowman did not promise to freeze or reduce property taxes, at least not until he gets other sources of revenue. And he was the most committed advocate of bus rapid transit, a pledge that not only meshes well with Selinger’s world view, but which also means an immediate need to find ways of generating billions of additional dollars to make that a reality.

Selinger has had to live with a hostile mayor’s office for his entire tenure as premier. If he really believes there is common ground with Bowman, he should show his commitment to building a new relationship by helping the new mayor reinvent local government in this province.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca