Winnipeg mayoral candidates trade shots over infrastructure plans

Four candidates to become Winnipeg's next mayor traded shots with each other over their plans to build or not build major infrastructure projects and grow the city's economy.

The forum, organized by the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, revealed some stark differences in thevisions of the four candidates invited: Scott Gillingham, Kevin Klein, Shaun Loney and Glen Murray.

One point of disagreement arose over Gillingham's plan to attract support from other levels of government to widen Kenaston Boulevard.

Earlier this summer, the city councillor for St. Jamespromised to complete a business-case study for the project, and for extending Chief Peguis Trail west.

Loneyattackedthe plan, saying the federal government has already rejected the city's funding request for Kenaston Boulevard once in 2015, when the city applied to theBuilding Canada fund, and again in 2018 when it went for money through the National Trade Corridors fund.

"I want to ask Coun.Gillinghamhow he's ever going to convince the government of Canada to cost-share Kenaston. Why would they double down on car culture when it's not the best way to go?" Loney said at the forum, held in a conference room at the Holiday Inn Express Airport Polo Park.

Widening Kenaston is necessary to support development of Naawi-Oodena at the former Kapyong Barracks, Gillingham said.

That development "stands to really transform our city and it'll be the biggest, largest Indigenous-led economic development zone in all of Canada," he said.

"The federal government has an interest in that."

'Simply cannot afford' new infrastructure: Loney

In front of a crowd of construction industry leaders, Loney proclaimed the city "simply cannot afford to continue to build new infrastructure. The evidence is absolutely everywhere."

That earned him a response from Gillingham.

"In this room, you heard him sayhe will not invest in trade infrastructure," said Gillingham.

Gillingham also took aim at fellow city councillor Klein, over his refusal to vote for Winnipeg's transit master plan.

That plan is needed "to make sure we can have a modern city with a modern transit service," said Gillingham, noting Klein's was the only vote against it in 2021.

"It was terrible," Klein replied.

Klein said he did not have enough time to review the plan, and repeated his assertion that the service has too many problems to warrant further investment.

"The very first thing I would do with bus transit is try to figure out how we get everybody to pay, because 5,000 people a day don't," he said.

"And I would make it safe for people to use, because people aren't using it because it's not safe."

Those problems must be fixed"before we start throwing millions of dollars at something that people aren't going to use or pay for," Klein said.

Murray, who was mayor from 1998 to 2004, criticized decisions the city has made regarding infrastructure development since then,such as the creation of a retail hub along the southern portion of Route 90, which he said was originally meant to be a cross-town commuter route.

"If you don't match your land-use planning to your transportation planning, that creates a challenge," he said.

Murray touted his record as mayor and his experience developing software models for infrastructure, saying he would use it to help make decisions on infrastructure development.

That drew criticism from Klein.

"It sounds more like to me that my colleague Glen just wants to get his business work at city hall," he said.

Gillingham encouraged the city to work with surrounding municipalities on infrastructure development.

"We have to plan regionally. We have to invest regionally. We have to work regionally, so we're competing less against one another as municipalities and more against other regions across this nation and, in fact, around North America."

Murray, Klein questioned about past

The candidates also faced questions about their past.

Moderator Richard Cloutier asked Murray about his time at the Alberta-based Pembina Institute.

A CBC investigation uncovered allegations of harassment and poor management by former employees at theclean energy think tank, where Murrayserved as executive director from September 2017 to September 2018.

Asked what he learned from the experience, Murray responded that he had been going through a tough time at that point.

"I don't bring my problems to work, but it doesn't mean that every job I've had in my life is a good fit. I came in to create significant change in an organization that clearly didn't want it. I didn't stick around. I respectfully left mutually, and I learned some with some humility that I'm not good at everything."

Former staff and communications obtained by CBC News say Murray was forced to leave the institute.

Cloutier also asked Klein about his time working for Peter Nygard, the former fashion mogul who has been accused of multiple incidents of sexual assault.

Klein denied any knowledge of the alleged crimesin 2012 and 2014, when he briefly worked for Nygard.

"I've answered these questions for years. People have tried to throw this mud at me for years. I'm used to being bullied, so I'm happy to answer them," he said.

"I left within four months because he's a terrible person. And I wouldn't suggest anybody workfor him, but I didn't see anything illegal. I wasn't with him 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

• More from CBC on the 2022 Winnipeg election

Gillingham, Klein, Loney and Murray are among 11 candidates running for mayor. The other candidates are Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Jenny Motkaluk, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Rick Shone and Don Woodstock.

Advance voting opened on Monday and closes Oct. 21.

Election day is Oct. 26.