City council yesterday voted to delay a start on the construction of a bus rapid transit system for Winnipeg. It is a wholly unnecessary delay. Few reasonable people looking at the facts for rapid transit could conclude otherwise, especially at this time when world oil prices are skyrocketing and the city's population at last is on the rise and threatening to create more congestion. But rapid transit has been delayed. It is an unfortunate fact. That however, does not mean rapid transit is dead. Instead, it could be said that it is only now starting to come to life.

The obvious reason for the delay is clear. Winnipeg has a new mayor in Sam Katz and Mr. Katz wants to demonstrate that he is the new boss with new priorities. That Mr. Katz so quickly brought a majority of councillors to heel on command might be evidence of considerable political acumen, but this initial victory was surely tainted. It was tainted first by the fact that Mr. Katz made youth a priority in his campaign but yesterday spurned their entreaties that rapid transit go ahead. It was a sign tainted by the resignation yesterday of the head of Winnipeg Transit, whose integrity was impunged in the drive for this dubious prize. And it is a dubious prize. In order to delay a done deal on rapid transit, council proposes that attention be redirected to community clubs under a program that has yet to be devised and with money that has yet to be secured. As was often noted yesterday, the city lost the bird in hand in the hopes of securing one in the bush.

But the less obvious reasons for the delay might prove more important, and constructive, for that matter, in the longer term.

In the debate yesterday, 10 city councillors and the mayor all said they support rapid transit, and then 10 councillors and the mayor all voted to delay. While that seems to amount to evidence that silly hall is as silly as ever, it more likely is evidence of just how shallow past support for bus rapid transit has been. In the debate, most of those who stood with the mayor showed a poor grasp of the concept and often no grasp of the facts or for the rationale for bus rapid over vastly more expensive alternatives. The opposite was the case among the minority of five councillors who voted against the delay.

It is unfortunate that after 30 years of debate about rapid transit that many city councillors are unsure of what it is or its benefits, but there it is. And if members of city council are unclear, what then of the population in general?

The vehicle to delay rapid transit was the promise of a task force that will review the issue and report next June. It could be that this will amount to little more than "paralysis by analysis", but it also could prove to be the means rapid transit supporters seek to galvanize informed support and build on the momentum that so obviously has been building in Winnipeg — except at city hall.