When the City of Winnipeg does the bare minimum to enable the public to share their views, you know it’s because they don’t want to bother listening. When it comes to receiving Housing Accelerator Fund money, they do not want anyone to stand in their way, and that’s what’s unfolding this coming week.
Municipalities are being forced by the federal Liberal government to remove the right of citizens to formally object to four-plex and similar housing projects that could affect their property value and quality of life.
The regulatory changes for new housing within 800 meters of frequent transit routes are going to be debated by Winnipeg city council at a public hearing that could stretch over a two week period starting June 2.
Before that happens, city staff are required to conduct public information sessions to show Winnipeggers the scope of these zoning changes, and how neighborhoods can and will be affected.
Open Houses let the public view display boards, ask questions face to face with city planners, and press the staff for answers and solutions. When the realities faced by taxpayers clash with the grand ideas of the urban visionary bureaucrats, it gets in the way. They can’t be having
As for the proposed four-plex housing rules, someone in the administration decided to give Winnipeg’s 800,000 residents only one chance to see it for themselves.
They also decided to hold the session downtown, on a weekday, during rush hour.
I asked the city communications department who had made that scheduling decision, and the reason for it. They didn’t want to give me a name, or the reason. Instead I got a public relations pitch:
“We are looking forward to discussing proposed zoning changes with Winnipeg residents next week and have planned multiple open houses — both virtual and in-person — that we expect will make it easier for residents to participate.
“All four sessions will offer the opportunity to talk directly to City planners about the proposed changes. The one in-person session on March 19th [at the RBC Convention Centre] is a “come-and-go” format located downtown that won’t require participants to arrive by a certain time.”
To be clear, virtual/Zoom sessions are no substitute for in-person examinations of the material and for direct questioning of city officials.
Older homeowners, who have great equity and investment at risk, aren’t likely to log in and sit staring at a computer screen for a conversation controlled by the bureaucrats. Virtual meetings discourage, rather than encourage, their participation.
You can bet the planners know this.
The reply continued, “The time and location of the in-person open house was selected to host people leaving the downtown late in the day, or to welcome people from across the city in the early evening.”
Maybe there’s no “requirement” to arrive, but the time slot conflicts with rush hour traffic, leaving work, picking up the kids, running errands and family dinner.
The last excuse they gave was even more confusing: “The multiple virtual sessions will offer more convenience to participants who may not be available to travel downtown for an open house.”
For the Malls and Corridors zoning changes, four separate Open House events were conducted. These changes are far more extensive and will affect 21 different local area plans. So, why is only one in-person Open House being offered this time?
We know what the excuse was, but the spinners at 510 Main Street dared not admit it to me.
In a Winnipeg Sun editorial on Feb. 26, St. Vital Councillor Brian Mayes revealed that, “City staff said there will only be one in-person session because of ‘security concerns.”
When I told Mayes that part was left out of the response from the staff, his observation was, “If you’re going to say it, then own it.” But the staff didn’t, and no wonder.
That’s because it shows the contempt city hall bureaucrats have for the hard-working taxpayers that pay their salaries.
As Mayes explained in February, “Essentially, they’re starting the process by demonizing any potential opponent as a ‘security concern.’ People have legitimate questions, and city staff are trying to shame them.”
The shame is on bureaucrats for even suggesting that their safety is at risk and that it’s a genuine reason to throttle public participation.
Mayes “had three town halls on this already, and there were no security issues.” What the supposed security concerns are, no one will tell me on the record. Off the record, however, it’s been described by City Hall insiders as “The Niverville Effect.”
The Winnipeg Metropolitan Region Plan20-50 was derailed last August after 600 people showed up at a public hearing in Niverville to take a stand against the planning blueprint. It was a big wake-up call for Mayor Gillingham and all municipal politicians.
Those citizens — many from Winnipeg — were concerned about the loss of local input and control into neighborhood housing developments. Those are the same issues at stake now.
There’s no “security risk” from people taking part in a democratic process. Just hire some cops, “problem” solved.
The risk is, like Plan20-50, that the people will make their voices heard and force the bureaucrats back to the drawing board. They can’t be having that.
Mayes did make the point that the staff listened to feedback from councillors and the public in the last few months, and the original height allowance has been scaled back to 39 feet with added parking requirements and rules for back lanes adjacent to four-plexes. So that was progress, but Mayes agreed that holding only one Open House, is not. “I want people to know about this and have their say. I still think there should be more than one in-person meeting.”
Mayes and Councillor Russ Wyatt introduced a motion to require information meetings in all 15 wards. Councillors Markus Chambers, Sherri Rollins and Janice Lukes told me they agree there’s a need for further meetings with the community.
“This is not the public hearing itself, it is just the information of what being proposed,” Mayes explained. “There won’t be the potential for public hearings where for years people have had the right to challenge rezoning. Maybe people should be made aware of that.”
A good start to make people aware would be for the upcoming events to be listed on the Winnipeg.ca home page so the public would know about them. However, the only mention of the sessions is on a press release from March 3 in the “Newsroom” section.
It’s so buried on the website, no one would ever know there’s something important being discussed at the Convention Centre on Wednesday between 4 and 7 pm. Who decided that?
If you decide to head down there and see what’s being proposed, maybe you can ask the bureaucrats why it wasn’t advertised on the city website, and why they think you’re a security risk for caring about the future of your street and neighborhood.
Marty Gold - Winnipeg Sun