Road to ruin
Spending gas-tax windfall on road repair is a visionless plan
Nick Ternette


I don’t know about you, but I’m sure tired of Mayor Sam Katz and city council whining about the federal gas tax, arguing that Winnipeg has the right to the money raised from the tax and should put it toward fixing roads and bridges.

Never mind that the federal government would like the tax money to be spent in areas ranging from sewers to rapid transit (because they are ‘green projects’) instead of on roads and bridges.

To be blunt, I don’t know where Mayor Katz gets off thinking the New Deal was about spending money on roads and bridges. Glen Murray’s vision had nothing to do with road repair but more with a transformation of how cities finance themselves — that is, by moving away from blanket property taxes to targeted user fees and ‘sin taxes.’

I can’t for a moment accept Mayor Katz’s argument that a city with safe and effective roads, bridges and streets is likely to be a green city. The fact is, if we had an LRT or a monorail (as Steven Juba suggested in the ’60s), then we wouldn’t have the degree of deterioration on bridges and streets that we have today.

Never mind the comments of Tom Brodbeck in the Winnipeg Sun concerning the fact that a recent mayor’s office poll revealed 71 per cent of Winnipeggers want to fix roads and bridges while only 23 per cent want to spend money on environmental projects.

No wonder! We don’t have any alternative solutions. And is the majority always right? No, of course not.

I can see why 33 per cent of Winnipeggers favour infrastructure and road repair, 13 per cent are concerned about crime, six per cent are concerned with property taxes and four per cent care about transit and rapid transit. Nevertheless, it seems to me that if only six per cent are concerned with property taxes, then maybe we can increase these taxes and use the money raised to fix roads and bridges. Then we could spend the gas-tax money on what it was meant for — rapid transit.

I’m fed up with our two-car culture that promotes roads and freeways instead of improvements to our present transit system or the creation of a real rapid-transit system.

It would be nice if Ottawa, for once, would stand up and tell Mayor Katz and city council that this gas-tax share — $167 million over the next five years — is to be put toward improving public transportation or creating a real rapid-transit system. Street-, road- and bridge-repair dollars should be found somewhere else.

But you know that’s not going to happen. The most likely reality is that, on paper, Winnipeg will agree to spend the money on transit, sewage overhaul and other projects that are good for the environment.

Then they will figure out claw back the cash and divert it toward street repair — allowing the city to claim victory over the feds in the gas-tax battle.

Ultimately, what we need to think about is the purpose of a city council.

Is it, as Tom Brodbeck continues to imply, simply there to provide basic services such as road repair, garbage pickup and policing?

Or should a city council be creative and concern itself with economic, social and cultural development?