An obvious example is the huge injection of dollars (20 million) into cycling infrastructure. Winnipeg is becoming a much more cycling friendly city although there is always much more to do.

On the transit front it is heartening to see the first phase of the Rapid Transit line from downtown to Jubilee Avenue moving forward after its unfortunate cancellation in 2004. A continued push for further investment in public transit infrastructure is essential which should mean the completion of the transit way all the way the University of Manitoba and the construction of an Eastern corridor.

It is also great news that Winnipeg claimed the title of the Cultural Capital of Canada for 2010. It is expected that now we will not see any cuts to our accomplished and respected Public Art Program, at least for 2010.

In 2010 City Council was referred to as an “intellectual free zone” in a Free Press column. It does seem that more and more often, there is a “dumbing down” occurring as Council as a whole is expected to blindly support decisions without the facts or proper explanations provided.

Major decisions have been made by council without so much as a piece of paper outlining the rationale or justification for the expenditure/decision.

The police helicopter which was approved at a cost of 3 ½ million is a prime example. If the idea is sound, then for goodness sake, release the report that shows us that!

The decision to procure a private partner to design, build, finance and possibly operate our wastewater facilities remains shrouded in contradictory and confusing information. The business plan was never clarified to explain how something that was supposed to be 100% city owned could include up to a 49% share by a private partner.

Furthermore, there has been almost no discussion about the decision Council is likely to make this month which will give one of three huge multinational corporations significant control over our currently publicly run water and waste facilities.

Concerns have been raised about the track records of these companies and the experience of other jurisdictions should be thoroughly reviewed before proceeding. Yet there has been little or no response to concerns about how to hold these faceless multibillion dollar international firms to account and how to protect our local interests. In the absence of proper legislation to ensure accountability and transparency in these private partnership arrangements, the public is correct to be concerned.

The decisions of our local government have a huge impact on the daily lives of each of us. Perhaps the most important decision of 2010 will be the one that takes place in October when a new Council is elected. I hope more people will participate and make their voices heard and concerns known throughout the year.

I wish you all the best in 2010 and hope each of you had a peaceful holiday season.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Jenny's eNewsletter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.