City Hall, 510 Main Street (CHRISD.CA FILE)
Three of the eight candidates vying to be Winnipeg’s next mayor were busy on the campaign trail on Thursday.
Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Brian Bowman all made policy announcements within 90 minutes of each other downtown.
Here’s what they promised:
Robert-Falcon Ouellette
The university administrator vowed to “rebuild the fiscal balance” at city hall by asking the province to turn over 70 percent of the collection on the PST hike to the city.
“As a mayor who is beholden to no political party I will have the ability to can work with or stand up to the province and Ottawa,” Ouellette said.
Ouellette also vowed to cut the wages of city staff (including councillors) who make over $80,000 annually by five percent.
Judy Wasylycia-Leis
The former NDP MP said she would like to see a community centre open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, noting it was an idea originally fronted by Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO).
Also part of her platform is the creation of a $250,000 mayor’s community enterprise fund — where the city would loan up to $10,000 to help finance pop-up restaurants, small businesses, emerging music and arts festivals and other events that promote economic development and make the city a more vibrant place.
Brian Bowman
The Winnipeg lawyer said he would work with the province to try and recoup a larger share of the one percent PST increase to fund crumbling infrastructure.
“It is no secret that Winnipeg does not get its fair share of PST funding for infrastructure,” Bowman said. “But rather than playing political games or calling for complicated new deals, we simply want to begin a new era of positive discussions to see how both levels of government can work together to help re-build Manitoba’s capital city.”
