The ‘Gang of Nine’ and business as usual at city hall

In the early 1990s, after the province reduced the number of municipal wards in Winnipeg to 15, critics spoke at length of how a theoretical “Gang of Eight” could control all decision making at city hall. In subsequent years, there were various incarnations of a Gang of Eight, although it was never conclusively shown that eight members of city council could consistently stay on the same page long enough to dominate civic affairs.

That is an apt tale to consider now, as Winnipeg city hall welcomes nine rookie councillors, the largest number of non-incumbents elected in more than 30 years.

Theoretically, this new group of councillors could band together and push through various reforms. It’s a highly intriguing scenario for anyone who has watched the city, on occasion, shun riskier strategies in favor of status quo politics.

However, as was the case in the early 1990s, the chances of that happening begin to fall apart once you consider the work of building and sustaining a coalition of rookie councillors who come from a broad array of backgrounds.

Deluxe apartment tower taking shape in Tuxedo

The owners of a shopping strip in the city’s wealthiest neighbourhood have identified the site of a longtime gas station on Corydon Avenue as an untapped residential resource.

Expect a reasonable approach to keep Manitoba’s minimum wage out of cellar

The devil will be in the details when it comes to how much the Stefanson government will increase the minimum wage in 2022 under proposed legislation that’s expected to become law this week.

My prediction: government will boost the base wage by at least $1.10 an hour this year.

As expected, the Stefanson government plans to alter its inflation-based formula for setting the minimum wage, which now stands at $11.95 an hour. Normally, the base wage is indexed to the previous year’s rate of inflation. That’s sound policy during normal times. However, with inflation growing at rates not seen in more than 30 years, an immediate adjustment is required to ensure minimum-wage earners don’t lose purchasing power.

Conservative governments in Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick have all announced significant increases to their base wages in 2022, putting pressure on the Stefanson government to follow suit. Failure to do so would see Manitoba’s minimum wage (previously scheduled to rise 40 cents an hour to $12.35 on Oct. 1) rank lowest in the country.

New council, new opportunies for Winnipeg

Last week, Winnipeg voters returned Mayor Scott Gillingham to city hall for a second term, but the more surprising election storyline is that nine of the 15 councillors surrounding him will be new faces.

One encouraging aspect of the results is the community-building experience several of these new councillors bring to the job. Their backgrounds in urban planning, neighbourhood advocacy and community development offer valuable perspectives as Winnipeg confronts difficult questions about how it grows.

These perspectives will be particularly important because some of the most consequential decisions councillors can make happen when they evaluate residential development proposals at committee meetings. Over the next four years, the 16 people we’ve just elected will bear the enormous responsibility of deciding where and how Winnipeggers live. These choices will have profound implications for quality of life, social opportunity and the economic viability of our city. They will shape not only the Winnipeg we know today, but the city we leave to our children and grandchildren.

At committee meetings, councillors will hear endless arguments about parking, traffic, and protecting “neighbourhood character.”