Mayor's inner circle receives earful about transit, southwest Winnipeg recreation

It may get dark early in December, but Tuesday is the longest day of the year for members of Mayor Brian Bowman's inner circle.

City council's executive policy committee is spending the day hearing delegations address Winnipeg's spending plans for next year a $1.08-billion operating budget and a$248-million capital budget.

No fewer than 53 people are registered to speak. They're each granted up to 10 minutes, not including questions from members of the committee.

The number of delegates typically causes the annual budget-delegation meeting to run into the evening. But no decisions will be made Tuesday, as EPC meets again on Friday to table a final list of amendments to the 2018 spending plans.

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Despite the somewhat symbolic nature of the meeting and the long running time, it's still worth appearing before the mayor and his allies to express concerns about city spending plans, said Denise MacDonald of the West End Women's Resource Centre.

Her organization is concerned proposed Winnipeg Transit fare hikes will harm women who already struggle to afford bus fare. The 2018 budget proposes a 25 cent fare hike.

"We want to be on the record, so when decisions come through and it results in disastrous consequences for some individuals, we did the most that we could," said MacDonald, a former provincial NDPstaffer.

"One woman I talked to has three kids and she takes the bus twice a day, so that's a dollar every way, so it's $2a day, which ends up being $14 every week," she said. "When you're living day to day, on a very low income, that means you're cutting down on food, you're cutting down on clothing for your kids."

MacDonaldsaid council should forgo business tax cuts to mitigate the transit fare hike.

She is among at least eight delegates who registered to speak to the executive policy committee about transit.

Another dozen delegates registered to decry the absence of funding for a southwest Winnipeg recreation centre, an issue South Winnipeg-St. Norbert Coun. Janice Lukes has raised since the start of the budget process.

Council as a whole will debate the 2018 budget at a special meeting scheduled for Tuesday.