City councillors divided over secure parking for Winnipeg police

A vote over whether to convert a floor of a downtown Winnipeg parkade into a secure parking lot for police came to a tie vote at a Wednesday meeting of city council's executive policy committee.

During his last EPC meeting as mayor, Brian Bowmanjoined two other councillors in voting against the proposal to dedicate a floor of the Millennium Library Parkade to the city's police service.

That would cost the city an estimated $200,000 up front, plus $95,000 a year in lostparking income, the committee heard.

The proposal, brought forward by City of Winnipeg chief administrative officer Michael Jack, would resolve a long-standing grievance between the union for Winnipeg police officers and the city.

The Winnipeg Police Association has said its members don't feel safe walking to their vehicles when leaving the downtown headquarters, across the street from Millennium Library.

But Bowman said part of the reason he voted against the proposal was that the Winnipeg Police Service and Chief Danny Smyth had rejected it.

"I don't think it's fair or reasonable to taxpayers, especially when the Winnipeg Police Service itself has not supported this grievance," Bowman said at a news conference.

Couns. Sherri Rollins and Matt Allard also voted against the deal, while Jeff Browaty, Markus Chambers and Brian Mayes voted in favour. Coun. Cindy Gilroy was absentdue to a personal matter.

City council will get a final vote on the deal at its meeting later this month.

Police would have to commit to renting stalls: CAO

Ultimately, the deal would depend on the police service finding people to rent all of the 264 stalls, at a cost of $275 per month.

"They would really have to put their money where their mouth is and commit," Jack told reporters following the meeting.

"If they got the sufficient commitment, then they would get the secure parking that they've been asking for for many years."

Jack was questioned during the meeting by Rollins about whether the public service had asked neighbouring businesses and organizations about the potential impact of losing the parking spaces.

After the meeting, he said the report comes "in the context of trying to settle a labour grievance and so we don't tend to do a lot of external consultation when we're trying to settle a labour matter."

Mayes expressed concern during the meeting that rejecting the deal could lead to it going to an arbitrator, and ultimately costing the city more money.

Jackacknowledged that possibility.

"If the ultimate award by an arbitrator was that the city needed to provide heavily subsidized or complimentary parking, then that absolutely would cost more than the arrangement we had proposed today," he said.

A city report in November 2021 found that the parkade needs $55 million in repairs. Any deal with police would be voided if the city chose to sell or decommission the parkade, rather than make the repairs, Jacksaid.

Next mayor must committoHQ lawsuit: Bowman

With just a weeks left in his term, Bowman who is not running for a third term in the Oct. 26 civic election said he is not endorsing anyone to be his successor. However, he did hint at whathe will be thinking about when casting his own ballot.

Bowman warned Winnipeg voters against electing anyone who was not committed to pursuing the ongoing legal battle against companies and individuals involved in the construction of the downtown police headquarters.

"You need to know that your mayor has your back, and that's why I think the police headquarters legal actions will be telling about who provides definitive commitment to seeing it through, versus those who might not be as clear on that commitment," Bowman said.

In January 2020, the city launched a civil lawsuit in Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench against Caspian Construction and dozens of other companies and people involved in the project.

That came after a five-year-long RCMP investigation into allegations of fraud and secret commissions associated with the HQ construction ended with no charges being laid.

Scott Gillingham, who is among the 15 people running for mayor, has supported the city's legal challenge as the city councillor for St. James,Bowman said.

Bowman said the only candidate who has declared they support the legal action is Rana Bokhari.

Bowman did not specify any candidate when asked who he thought would not pursue the lawsuit, but appeared to refer to Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood Coun. Kevin Klein, who voted against increasing the city's legal budget to hire external lawyers and forensic auditors in September 2020.

On Wednesday, Klein denied being opposed to the investigation, saying he voted against the funding because of a lack of information about why it was needed.

"I have already committed publicly, several times, and I intend to dig into the issue, and I intend to look even deeper internally to find out what is going on, who was involved in that decision, and to make sure that we have accountability at city hall," he told CBC.

The other candidates who have registered mayoral campaignsareIdris Adelakun,Chris Clacio,Vincent Gabriele, Shaun Loney, Jenny Motkaluk, Glen Murray, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Jessica Peebles, Rick Shone, Govind Thawani, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock.

• Read more from CBC on the 2022 Winnipeg election

Bowman would not offer any clues abouthis plans for when he leaves office, saying his focus was on the final council meeting before the civic electionand on helping the city with its protocols surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth.