Winnipeg's rapid transit task force plans to substantially change its recommendations on how to beef up the city's transit system, including resurrecting parts of former mayor Glen Murray's failed bus rapid transit scheme.
And Mayor Sam Katz isn't too happy about it.
According to internal city documents obtained by The Sun, the task force plans to recommend the city — in the first phase of the project — build a dedicated BRT corridor from downtown to the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus at a cost of $84 million.
Under the revised plan, the cost of the first phase would balloon to $165 million from $90 million.
That's not what was in the original plans made public during a series of open house meetings in May.
"There's something rotten in the state of Denmark," Katz told The Sun yesterday when asked about the changes. "I'm a little shocked and surprised that suddenly there's been a major shift."
The task force is headed by Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona) who's been feuding with Katz behind the scenes in recent months.
Coun. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry), one of Katz's chief political opponents, is also on the task force and she's been pushing — somewhat hysterically — to re-introduce at least part of Murray's flawed and wasteful $400-million BRT plan.
"That was not what the public was shown," said Katz. "The public was shown something totally different." The task force proposed in May to improve the existing bus system, including more diamond lanes and priority signals for buses. They also proposed two short dedicated busways, one near Osborne Village, the other along Nairn Avenue.
There were no plans to build an expensive dedicated busway along Pembina Highway as proposed by Murray before he quit city council last year and was defeated in a federal election.
But all that has changed.
"It certainly begs the question, is there something going on behind the scenes? Has a deal been made?" said Katz. "My very educated guess would be that's exactly what this is about, internal politics — you support me on this one, I'll support you on that one and what's best for the city doesn't matter."
THREATENING LETTER
Katz appointed Wyatt to head the task force in October. But the relationship between the two has since soured.
In March, Katz fired off a letter to Wyatt threatening to pull him off the task force after Wyatt allegedly told the mayor he would only provide him with updates on the task force if Katz could guarantee funding for a proposed Transcona recreation project.
"I wrote him a letter and told him I'm not one to be intimidated in any way shape or form," said Katz.
So here's the politics: Wyatt supports Gerbasi on her flighty, Glen Murray BRT dreams and Gerbasi supports Wyatt on his recreation park.
And so goes the circus at city hall.
Meanwhile, under the revised plan, Phase One would include a partly built dedicated busway to Transcona at a cost of $22 million. Add to that $41 million for new bus stations and $18 million for park-n-ride space and the total bill for the first phase is $165 million.
The second phase would also jump in cost to $105 million — up from $70 million under the plan released in May — including the completion of the Transcona corridor, adding more stations and making other on-street improvements.
Plans for a light rail system would be dropped. The plan in May called for a light rail system downtown, but not for 10 to 20 years. The task force is expected to report by September.