Now is the time for plans, vision

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This article was published 31/08/2022 (1313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“The reality is, we are the second major city in this province. We do need to step up and make sure that we’re addressing large urban issues and representing our region.”

— Jeff Fawcett, April 1

For several months, Winnipeg residents have been inundated with mayoral candidates making all manner of announcements and promises in their respective bids to lead that city’s council.

Candidate Shaun Loney yesterday promised to reduce bike theft in Winnipeg by eliminating bike registration fees, spend $200,000 in taxpayer money to install public bike lockers, change city zoning rules to require new developments to include secure bike storage, and have one city police officer dedicated to fight bike theft.

Candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette told Winnipeg media two weeks ago that he wants the city to tax downtown surface parking lots as a means to encourage owners to develop them.

Mayoral hopeful Kevin Klein wants to take on city crime by putting sheriffs in Winnipeg hospitals as a means to free up police resources. Another candidate, Don Woodstock, says he wants to replace transit bus supervisors with police officers.

And former Winnipeg mayor and once-again hopeful Glen Murray says that if he’s elected, he would build affordable housing on Winnipeg-owned lots that are either empty or have abandoned houses, with subsequent property tax revenue increases given to fund local organizations.

That’s just a taste of the last few weeks. While these are all competing visions brought forward by very different kinds of candidates, it’s nonetheless a sign of a vibrant and compelling discussion taking place in our capital city during this municipal election.

Unfortunately for Brandon, it appears that we continue to have vision problems.

Last week, Brandon’s lone candidate for mayor, Jeff Fawcett, sat down with the Sun at our request for an update on his campaign and, hopefully, to talk candidly about his ideas and his vision for the city. I took part in some of the discussion here in the newsroom, listening in as Fawcett spoke with the Sun’s political reporter, Colin Slark.

As I did so, I was reminded of the day that Mr. Fawcett first announced his candidacy in April, and his assertion that his administration would be a lot like a Rick Chrest administration. Regular readers of this paper will recall that over the years my biggest pet peeve of Chrest was that he did not have any overarching vision for this city — a point on the horizon that we could aim for to improve the lives and fortunes of its denizens.

But in that early conversation, Fawcett gave me some hope for a change on that front, stating that he wanted to ensure that Brandon realized its role as this province’s second-largest city, to “step up and make sure that we’re addressing large urban issues and representing our region.”

At the time, he said Winnipeg had been working hard on development with the province and that Brandon needs to become more ambitious to get similar results.

I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment. Now is certainly the time to be having these kinds of discussions about the future of the city. And after having served on council for 12 solid years as an able councillor for the Assiniboine ward, surely Fawcett must be busting with ideas to push new downtown development, improve our city’s ability to host events, draw new and larger businesses to Brandon, or address transparency and public accountability around the council table.

But after listening to and taking part in some of the conversation last week, and then reading the story on Saturday, I have to say that at this point I could not tell you how Fawcett plans to help Brandon realize that “second-city” role. To me, that seems to be a lost opportunity for public buy-in.

Why are we still having to ask the questions: what is your vision, and how do we get there? What is your plan of action? And after having four months to get those ideas out to the public as a candidate, I think there are a number of people in the community wondering the same thing.

It’s not enough to say we need to make downtown safer. How do we do it? What steps are necessary? Acknowledging that city residents want a more walkable city is fine, but what can council do to ensure it?

It is, perhaps, a hazard of an uncontested mayoral campaign that ideas and innovation get pushed to the back burner. And Fawcett may well have a detailed plan in place. Perhaps he’s waiting for registrations to close before showing his cards. I simply don’t know.

But if I could give one piece of advice to the would-be mayor, it would be to lay his cards on the table now to spur some discussion. We need it. Our city residents are craving for someone to dare to have an idea, and a vision for the future of this city. And as the only mayoral candidate thus far, Fawcett has the whole playing field to himself to lead that discussion.

Otherwise, if anyone else comes forward with a plan in hand and a hat in the ring to challenge him, Fawcett runs the risk of looking like he’s standing still.

Much like the city he wants to lead.

» Matt Goerzen, editor