GOLD: NDP launches secret survey on Metro Plan20-50

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It was smooth sailing for the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region board to impose a draconian, centrally controlled development blueprint on its unwilling members and uncooperative nay-sayers — until the Winnipeg Sun showed up.

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Before my column on Aug. 4, 98% of Winnipeggers hadn’t heard of “Plan20-50” and with good reason — City administration had not advertised the Metro open house and public hearing held in Winnipeg at all, even though the plan couldn’t be amended for 10 years once passed into law and was going to affect every resident, property and business owner.

The public was shocked to read the objections voiced at the first public hearing.

The complaints included inadequate consultation with housing and trucking stakeholders, half-drawn maps and half-baked climate change theories, and especially, a back-door “double majority” voting scheme to let Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham control every vote of the Board with veto power and become de-facto kingpin over 850,000 people across the 18 member municipalities.

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All the WMR had to do was sit through one more pro-forma hearing in Niverville — where contrary to their own rules, they would not entertain questions and then the plan would be rammed through at the next Board meeting.

Four days after my column, attendance from the first hearing tripled for the second session and panic set in for the WMR.

Opponents misinformed?

The second public hearing was supposed to be a mere formality- but there wasn’t room for the all of the pesky public at the hall in Niverville and the session was postponed.

Gillingham and a rump caucus quickly pronounced their continued support for the plan and labelled opponents as a “misinformed” fringe that hadn’t read the plan. But they did, and that’s why they showed up.

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Within two weeks, nine RMs declared they had read the document and walked away from it — and in some cases, wanted to walk away from the Metro itself.

Since the NDP had opposed the Brian Pallister legislation that created the unelected WMR, they saw an opportunity. Premier Wab Kinew announced he’d allow municipalities to opt out of WMR membership and Plan20-50.

He got the headline he wanted — NDP to make changes to Plan20-50 after pushback from municipalities — but now Kinew has a new headache.

Manitoba is legally required to undertake a review of the amendments that created the WMR and other general planning and zoning processes (like appeals) by the end of October.

Secret survey?

That includes a Planning Legislation Review Survey but the government doesn’t want anyone to know.

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On Tuesday, EngageMB posted the survey online but didn’t alert the 80,000 registered users who participate in their feedback loop. No email was sent, and no news release was posted on the government website. It’s essentially a secret survey.

It takes 30 questions about other legislation to get to the Planning Regions section, and the survey itself isn’t designed to get focused feedback about the Metro board or Plan20-50. It relies on general questions like “What is working well in respect of this focus area”, and “what is not working well” with no questions tailored to Plan20-50 itself.

I figured that while the Province was keeping the survey a secret from the public, surely the RMs — especially those opposed to Plan20-50 — would be steering their ratepayers to the survey. But when I checked their websites, not one of the 18 WMR members had a single word about it. Was the survey kept secret from them too?

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More dissent

Meanwhile, I learned that two more RMs have decided to turn thumbs down on Plan20-50. That makes 11 opposed — over half of the Metro membership.

And the reasons they gave confirm what critics have said, that the WMR abandoned a fair process to make a naked grab for power.

The RM of Cartier posted a statement on Aug. 26 that their “Concerns included the loss of autonomy of locally elected officials, additional layer(s) of bureaucracy, less municipal control regarding growth and development, along with the onerous cost burdens of required regional studies, plus the legislated financial contributions to the Capital Region operations, legal, community planning, and consultants.”

The RM noted it had previously “requested that the WMR conduct meaningful public consultations in each of the 18 affected municipalities with full disclosure of all information.”

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When that didn’t happen, “it became evident to Council that the flaws of the legislation and Plan20-50 were not being adequately addressed.”

On Aug. 29, the newest dissenter, the RM of Rockwood issued a “Plan 2050 Standpoint” with a stunning revelation.

“There are many areas of concern as to how the Regional Plan document was written, as there were no interviews with the R.M. of Rockwood to discuss our current infrastructure, community plans or future visions.”

Keep in mind WMR officials and their proxies have been defending Plan20-50 despite an entire RM being excluded from having input.

That corrupted process raised an even bigger issue because “Due to the lack of interviews, the R.M. of Rockwood is concerned about how the information was obtained for this Plan, and how the projections were made based from the information obtained.”

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It’s probably a secret.

The RM concluded “Plan 20-50 needs to take a step back and have a proper consultation process and not rely on the opinions of outside consultants.”

You’re probably wondering, if the general public isn’t told the survey is online, whose responses will be collected?

Well, you can bet the survey is no secret to the NDP caucus, who can give their partisan supporters a heads-up and skew the results accordingly.

Secret surveys are not a proper consultation process. Don’t keep your opinions about the WMR and Plan20-50 a secret from Wab Kinew’s Planning Legislation Review Survey. It’s available at https://engagemb.ca/planning-legislation.

— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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