Winnipeg's new utility

The Canadian city of Winnipeg's long-running saga about the creation of a new water utility seems over. After a marathon session, city council voted in favour of creating an arm's-length utility to manage Winnipeg's water and waste services. After a day that began with protests against water privatization outside city hall, a sometimes packed council chamber gallery heard barbed exchanges among councillors and accusations of grandstanding as the motion to create the new utility was passed by a 10-6 margin.

“(Today) I witnessed a display of hypocrisy and doublespeak that has become synonymous with the self-proclaimed official opposition to progress in our city,” Katz said during the meeting. “The sky isn't red, the world isn't flat, we're not privatizing water.”

City administrators have said the business-like, city-owned agency -- to be overseen by a board outside the city bureaucracy and possibly partnered with a private engineering firm -- might help the city better handle costs such as an estimated $600-million bill for planned upgrades to North End and South End water pollution control centres. Under the new arrangement, the city may work with private companies to complete sewage-plant upgrades and could partner with other municipalities to share infrastructure.

An estimated crowd of nearly 200 people converged this morning on the Main Street complex – the vast majority of them hoping to sway Mayor Sam Katz and councillors against a plan to launch a municipal utility. Numerous delegations also spoke to council at the meeting which stretched from 9:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., when the motion on the new utility was passed.

Council debated the core issue, several amendments to the utility motion and a motion – which was defeated – to defer the vote until fall after more public consultation and research could be undertaken. Several amendments to the utility motion were also passed including one that would require a referendum on any move to sell or privatize the municipal water utility, another that lays out rules for agreements between the city and capital region municipalities and for dealing with strategic partners and a third that keeps the setting of water and sewer rates under the city's control for the time being.