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Report On Winnipeg City Council Essay, Research Paper

City Politics

On October 9, I attended the City of Winnipeg, Executive Policy Committee meeting which was made up of Mayor Susan Thompson, Councillors Bill Clement, Jae Eddie, Mike O’ Shaughnessy, Amero Silva, and Garth Steek. On the agenda for that day was a presentation by the Yellowhead Highway Association, a hearing delegation from Councillor Lillian Thomas (Elmwood), regarding the redesignation of land between Gateway Road and The City of Winnipeg Hydro Transmission Line, south of Springfield Road and a discussion regarding the sale of land adjacent to Omand’s Creek between St. Matthews Avenue and the Winnipeg Velodrome.

The presentation from the Yellowhead Highway Association (YHA) by Linda Walker, was a basic update regarding the progress of developments that have been occurring along the highway, how the YHA is working with City of Winnipeg tourism to promote the city as well as a history of the YHA.

The Executive Policy Committee, seemed to be fairly uninterested with the work that the YHA was doing as many members seemed to be doing other things such as reading the paper and talking to associates. Susan Thompson commended the association’s work in helping with the promotion of the City of Winnipeg along with the development of the Yellowhead Highway. The only comment that came from another member of the committee was from Councillor Mike O’ Shaughnessy who felt that a map that was included in the YHA’s information package should be updated.

I thought that the presentation done by The Yellowhead Highway Association was very informative as to how the group helps promote tourism and what improvements are being made to the Yellowhead Highway. This was the first time that I had ever heard of the YHA and after the presentation, thought that their group was a benefit for the citizens that travel along the Yellowhead Highway. I was surprised to see the councillors show so little attention or entheusim to the YEA since they are the people, who we as citizens of the City of Winnipeg, elected to represent us.

The second issue on the agenda was regarding a hearing on the redesignation of land from a neighborhood policy area to an industrial policy area which would industrial park standards to the land. The land involved is “approximately 55 acres” (agenda, 101) between Gateway Road and The City of Winnipeg Hydro Transmission Line, south of Springfield Road which is owned by the Palliser Furniture Company. Originally the land was designated as industrial but was changed to a neighborhood policy in 1989. Palliser has decided to transfer “50% of its manufacturing capability from their North Carolina plant to their Winnipeg plant” (agenda, 101) and have reapplied to have that parcel of land designated as industrial in order to expand the plant.

This topic was presented by Councillor Thomas who wanted the hearing regarding the redesignation to be held in the evening at the East Kildonan – Transcona civic offices due to the fact that most of the citizens living in that area work throughout the day and a good response from the areas citizens would be unlikely. Councillor Thomas did not give her opinion of the proposed amendment as she wanted to wait until after the hearings to see how her constituents felt on the issue. The other Executive Policy Committee members had no comment on the issue and it was decided that a finalization on the times and dates of the hearing regarding the rezoning of the land would occur in the near future.

Since I do not live in the area, it is easy for me to say that the city should go ahead and rezone the land in order to allow the Palliser Furniture Company expand its facility. I can understand that the residents might have some concerns regarding the land as to what will happen to the property value, will noise levels be increased, and will their taxes be adjusted, but as it stands today, that area is covered in weeds and is more of an eyesore than it would be if Palliser did expand their plant on that land. With Palliser there, at least you would be assured that the lot would be clean like the existing Palliser plant in the Vulcan/Burnett industrial area. Plus the additional jobs that would be created would be a boost for the city and its economy which is something that cannot be ignored.

The third topic of discussion was most likely the main event of the Executive Policy Committee meeting. Many members of the local media were on hand to see what would happen to the proposed sale of land located at the “southeast corner of Empress Street and St. Matthews Avenue” (report, 2a) which was formally an exceptional soccer stadium called Alexander Park ,that slowly deteriorated and was eventually torn down in favor of the Winnipeg Soccer Complex to house major soccer events.

The American-based company, Home Depot wanted to buy the “13.9 acre lot” (Martin, A10) in order to develop it into a “105,000 square foot hardware store” (Martin, A10) at the price of “5.1 million” (Martin, A10). Due to the complexity of this issue and the number of people who wanted to speak about the development of the land, the committee decided to suspend the rules and allow all delegations to speak in the city council hall in front of all the councillors and the mayor. Delegations on hand were the Friend’s of Omand’s Creek, MLA MaryAnn Mihychuk (NDP-St. James), Home Depot landscape architect Michael Scatliff, and numerous people from the West End.

The major sticking point in closing the deal was the fact that the residents were concerned with the new property line as the stakes were already in the riverbank which did not allow enough room for a walkway to be built along the creek and proper buffering to be planted.

The views taken by city council seemed to be in favor of the proposed sale of land

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