The Black Rod

Janice Lukes has to be fired from Winnipeg council's executive policy committee immediately. She was hand-picked by Mayor Brian Bowman to sit on EPC and to chair the city's influential public works committee.  We'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know what a mistake he was making. Winnipeg cannot have someone who openly breaks the law sit on the city's most powerful committee.  Especially now that we see how much of a Trojan Horse she is for the bike lobby, promoting, priorizing and spearheading major projects that benefit a tiny special interest group at the expense of the rest of taxpaying Winnipeggers. It was that allegiance to the bike lobby that caught her up. The Winnipeg Free Press recently published a story about a stretch of Pembina Highway leading to the University of Manitoba that bicyclists feel is unsafe. Stretch of Pembina has already proved deadly for cyclists By: Kristin Annable  It’s a no man’s land for cyclists. A ...

We fell for it hook, line and sinker. The Disraeli Bridge Deception is a textbook example of everything that's wrong with city hall in Winnipeg. But this is an election year, and Mayor Sam Katz may find it one doublecross too many for people to stomach. It was April, 2008, when city hall announced that the aging Disraeli Bridge needed to be replaced expeditiously. The bridge had reached the end of its lifespan, we were told, and it was literally beginning to fall apart. But, in keeping with the modern mode of democracy, the public would be consulted about its preferences in a new bridge. So a series of public meetings were held where taxpayers could give their opinions on three bridge proposals which were variations of a four-lane refurbished Disraeli bridge with a new bicycle lane and a pedestrian walkway or two. The best-received, carrying a cost of $140 million, was duly announced. Twenty months later, City Hall is signing contracts for two bridges instead of on...