Yesterdays’ council meeting resulted in some painful and complex dialogue about the topics of Recreation facilities in our inner city, recycling, waste minimization and even Rapid Transit.

RECYCLING & WASTE MINIMIZATION

It was a pleasant surprise yesterday when Council decided not to proceed with an 8 year city wide recycling contract which was presented in the absence of a modern plan for Waste Minimization. The current blue box contract will be extended and a plan for a new waste minimization has been called for which should include curbside organics pickup.

For a while now, council has been reacting on an ad-hoc basis to contract deadlines rather than pro-actively bringing in innovations that actually would divert waste from our landfill and reduce Green House Gas emissions.

Winnipeg has one of the lowest waste diversion rates in the country, at around 17% as compared to other major centers which range from 50 to 70 % with Edmonton as the leader aiming for 90%. It is time for Winnipeg to start making some change!

It seems that the efforts of Resource Conservation Manitoba and others who have been vocal about the need to act, are finally being heard by our Mayor.

It may also be true that the politics of bringing in new automated recycling carts in September of an election year was just too scary for elected officials.

Now City Council’s feet should be held to the fire to come through with a real and meaningful waste minimization plan in consultation with the public.

RAPID TRANSIT: WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

As I write this, a tunnel is being blasted through the Fort Rouge Yards as part of the construction of the first phase of a Bus Corridor from downtown to Jubilee Avenue.

The highly anticipated second phase of this project which would extend to the University of Manitoba has been a hot topic of late..

Both the Province and the Federal government have indicated support for completing the project. Yet the Mayor has refused to include the second phase of the project in the 5 year projected capital budget. Furthermore he has said that he hopes to convince the other levels of government to build LRT instead of BRT.

The costs and location of the new technology the Mayor is proposing have only been discussed behind closed doors and have not been properly vetted through city committees, the transit department or any other understandable and transparent process.

It s wonderful that the Mayor recognizes the benefits of Rapid Transit and it certainly makes for a flashy election campaign to be raising hopes for a fancy new network of trains. My concern is that the city is sending confusing messages to our funders at a time when all levels of government face very tight budgets.

The Mayor is acting in a manner that could jeopardize existing funding commitments. In the short term at least, I hope he intends to shift gears and begin to advocate for the project that council, our transit plan, and the other two levels of government have committed to.

YOUTH FOR CHRIST FACILITY TO RECEIVE FUNDING

Over 25 delegations appeared before Council yesterday to express views about the proposal on a new recreational facility at Higgins and Main run by Youth for Christ.

There was a strong message from the Aboriginal and grassroots community working in the inner city with youth that there has been a lack of transparency, inclusion and opportunity in the decision making process here.

Council has now approved the project which will commit $225,000 per year for the next 15 years from the city’s operating budget as well as gifts of two parcels of land making for a total of 4.2 million dollars from the city. Federal dollars of $3,000,000 are also involved.

While YFC has been around for many years and is a valid part of the fabric of our community the question remains as whether such a large amount of public tax dollars should go there. In the past YFC has largely paid it’s own way.

Other options such as much needed investing in existing inner city services were not considered. There also has been no explanation of how this city will pay this bill in future years and whether other services will have to suffer due the huge projected budget deficits the city faces.

It has been difficult to speak up clearly about the legitimate concerns that many have about this project without being unfairly labeled anti-Christian or unconcerned about youth. It was clear from hearing the speakers yesterday that everyone involved on both sides care deeply about young people and about our community.

RIVERVIEW/LORD ROBERTS CLIMATE CHANGE REDUCTION MEETING

Just a reminder that there is meeting at the Fort Rouge Leisure Centre (625 Osborne) on Sunday, February 28th between 7:00 and 8:30PM to discuss the next steps of the Community-Led Emission Reduction Program’s efforts in Lord Roberts and Riverview.

Specifically, there will be a number of very brief presentations from local experts on each seven areas we hope to deliver projects in (Composting, Carpooling/Carshare Programs, E-Waste/Toxic Materials Disposal, Urban Agriculture/Community Gardens, Active Transportation/Bike Path Improvement, Urban Forest Maintenance and Community Help on Energy Retrofits/Community Conversation on Green Issues) and then we’ll be facilitating an hour long discussion to determine what exactly we want to do in each of those areas.

There will be coffee and snacks available.

Please RSVP to climatechange@riverviewcc.ca  if you plan on attending.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 4:01 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.