Bowman challenges other mayoral candidates to reveal property tax plans, says road repairs at stake

Brian Bowman challenged his rivals to state what they intend to do with property taxes over the next four years, saying freezes or cuts would threaten Winnipeg road renewals.

Bowman gathered reporters at his Notre Dame Avenue campaign headquarters Friday morning to say nearly $1 billion worth of future infrastructure work "is at significant risk" if one of his rivals wins the Oct. 24 election and doesn't commit to increasing revenue through property tax hikes.

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"Advance polls open in three days and yet few, if any, other candidates, other than myself, have publicly released their tax policy," said Bowman, who's seeking a second term as mayor.

"I can't think of a more fundamental and core commitment that all candidates have an obligation to provide Winnipeggers than what their tax plan is."

On Sept. 14, Bowman pledged to continue to increase the pool of taxes the city collects on existing properties by 2.33 per cent a year for four yearsthe same hike the city has implemented during each of his first four years in office.

That hike would raise $13.7 million in 2019, budget documents say.

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Bowman refused to say which of the seven other mayoral candidates he is concerned about. Both Umar Hayat and Venkat Machirajuhave promised on their websites to reduce property taxes, without explaining how they would replace that revenue.

"If you take a look at the funding commitments and the promises that I've made to date, I've gone to great lengths to provide identifiable funding sources for each of the commitments that I've made," Bowman said.

Bowman challenges other mayoral candidates to reveal property tax plans

6 years ago

Duration 1:57

Incumbent says he's not going on offensive but wants to know what other candidates are hiding

A CBC News-commissioned Probe Research poll done at the end of August suggested Bowman and Jenny Motkaluk are the only mayoral candidates who enjoy the support of more than one per cent of Winnipeg voters.

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Bowman refused to say whether his statements were aimed at Motkaluk, though he repeatedly mentioned "one candidate in particular" who has made promises totalling hundreds of millions.

In August, Motkaluk promised to spend $581 million on buses.

Bowman also said he was not going on the offensive, but he wants to know what his challengers are hiding.

"I don't think asking someone seeking to serve as mayor to disclose what their tax commitment is, is [going] on the offensive," he said. "On the contrary, I would ask what do people have to hide? Why not provide their tax plan?"

Motkaluksaid Bowman's challenge is gallingconsidering the mayor has declined her challenge to a head-to-head debate and said there's no doubt in her mind the incumbent is talking about her.

"It's unbelievable to me that Brian Bowman would call me out on taxes today without having the courage of his own convictions to stand up beside me in a one-on-one debate so we can talk about it," she said.

Bowman has said he won't attend any debate where all the candidates have not been invited.

Motkaluk said her campaign is now reviewing her commitments to attend future mayoral forums and debates, saying Winnipeggers have not been engaged in most of the five debates that already have been held.

She said she arrived at the decision after attending a Thursday-evening debate at the University of Winnipeg, where filmmaker Ed Ackermanjoked Winnipeg ought to pay motorists to visit the North End and former Winnipeg Transit driver Don Woodstock suggested fish farming as a means of encouraging Indigenous entrepreneurship.

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"The formats that we have been forced to engage with over the past five sessions have frankly been of remarkably little value," she said.

Motkaluksaid she will reveal her property tax plan on Oct. 11. She said it will makeWinnipeggers"happy" but refused to say whether she plans to freeze property taxes, cut them or increase them at a rate lower than what Bowman has proposed.