CURRIER: Mayor, council could pay the price for ignoring will of voters on Portage and Main

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Six years ago Winnipegers voted in favour of a motion which was put to them on the civic election ballot. Now, though, the current City Council has decided that the two-thirds of those who voted to keep Portage and Main closed to pedestrian traffic can, well, take a hike.

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It’s been decided by the current mayor and council (by a vote of 11 to 3 with two absent) that the barricades will fall and the concourse will be shuttered. This will please advocates of pedestrian traffic at our most famous intersection. They’ve long maintained that we need to see people crossing above ground to know that they’re there. This will guarantee that they’ll be seen.

The reason provided for disregarding the public is the cost of upgrades to the concourse, which could cost approximately $73 million. Closing it could cost $50 million. The cost to make the changes to the intersection is unknown.

The lack of functionality tells us that this is going to be problematic for everyone. Local businesses will feel the pinch. Both motorists and those brave enough to ride public transit will find themselves having to budget extra time to get to their destination.

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Advocates for opening Portage and Main have pointed to other famous intersections like Yonge and Bloor in Toronto or even Times Square in New York. We’re talking apples and acorns. In the case of both Toronto and New York, motorists have many options to avoid those intersections. Not in our case. Unless you’d like to drive through the Exchange, there’s no other way to navigate that area.

The economic argument has yet to be made in a persuasive fashion since we don’t know what it will cost to re-open the intersection. Shopkeepers might like a say in this, but, as is generally the modus operandi at 510 Main Street — public consultations are a sham. This decision was made while public opinion and stakeholder concerns were disregarded.

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The bigger issue is not whether Portage and Main being open to pedestrian traffic will enhance our city or not. Reasonable people can disagree. The real concern is that the current council has decided that the will of the people of this city doesn’t matter.

If two-thirds of the voting public mark their ballots the same way that’s called a landslide in the democratic world. That’s what the plebiscite was. The people of Winnipeg want that intersection left as it is.

As always, we won’t know if this idea is going to be functional until it’s put into practice. We might be pleasantly surprised at how efficient the new light system will be and how both transit and motorists will move swiftly and smoothly along Main.

Mayor Gillingham and the 11 councillors who voted in favour of ignoring the wishes of the locals need to be aware that the project is a failure, those same voters will be heading to the polls next time around.

— Geoff Currier is a former Winnipeg broadcaster.

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