Springfield public forum a mish mash of information

A public forum with guest speakers was held in Dugald on Sept. 12 with the intention of informing the public, but some may have left with more questions than answers after being exposed to misinformation and conspiracy theories from other attendees.

“We pressed council in the past to have (public forums) run by the council and for almost two years they have commented, ’Well, we’ll look at it we’ll consider it.’ So (Coun. Andy Kuczynski) and I are tired of waiting so we’re two years into our mandate and we just thought we could organize it,” said Coun. Mark Miller.

This is the third public forum held by the councilors, but the first where people were asked to give presentations.

Many in the audience came to the meeting to learn more about Plan 20-50, a development plan for the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region (WMR), which consists of 18 municipalities. It covers everything from housing, transportation, environment, and infrastructure.

Speaking about the plan was Gord Mackie, who taught public finance in the business faculty at Red River College.

“There are four things missing from Plan 20-50. I want to talk about accountability, transparency, transportation, and housing. So, what’s the most important is accountability and transparency and we’ll leave housing and transportation for another day,” he said.

Mackie went on to claim that there are aspects of Plan 20-50 which don’t allow for accountability, but he failed to say which parts of the plan.

“The fact that the 18 members of the metropolitan council are two steps removed from their electorates. The fact that five of the 18 haven’t even been voted on by anybody. They’re acclaimed. They weren’t even elected. What’s going on? Who are these people accountable to?”

Mackie went on to claim the structure of the organization makes for “real problems for voting” where those who are voting are not accountable to anyone and that members will make backroom deals with each other.

Members of the 18 municipalities are elected officials that were voted into office by his or her constituents. They represent on the board, and are accountable to, their constituents.

Mackie claimed that the plan is a way to finance Winnipeg. According to the WMR, Plan 20-50 calls for the financial benefit for all 18 municipalities.

The meeting left one man no more informed then before he came to the meeting.

“I came here to learn about (Plan 20-50) and I haven’t heard much about it yet,” he said to the crowd.

One woman asked the crowd how many had read Plan 20-50 and only five people in a room of about 100 lifted their hand. When asked how many people felt they were uninformed about the plan and were afraid of the plan because they had heard snippets about it, a quarter of the room raised their hand. The majority laughed or grumbled their displeasure about Plan 20-50.

Miller and Kuczynski admitted they didn’t ask anyone from the WMR to come and speak at the forum.

“We didn’t do that for the simple reason that were not supposed to speak about Plan 20-50 specifically, so we limited our conversation on that,” said Miller.

The two councillors also have an issue with the Springfield council not being informed by Mayor Patrick Therrien, who sits on the WMR board, about what is going on in that boardroom.

“We working as a council. When he goes to these meetings at least advise us in camera what they discuss. We never have one meeting with our mayor telling us what they’re discussing,” said Kuczynski.

Also covered that night was an update on the Armtec Community Recreation Centre. The $23 million build has so far garnered about $12 million. Fundraising chair Mike Witkowicz said they are still waiting for federal funding and other funding avenues to make up the difference.

A Sio Silica update was given wherein the company appears to be in talks with Brokenhead Ojibway Nation to build a solar panel manufacturing plant on the reserve. Speaker Tangi Bell also called on the crowd to call for changes to the the Mines and Minerals Act.

The Dugald-Oakbank water treatment plant will use reverse osmosis, UV light, chlorination, and filtration to clean the water for drinking. The Heatherdale wells will be decommissioned when the water treatment plant is up and running. Speaker Darryl Speer said the plant doesn’t need to have reverse osmosis and that all it needs to treat the water is UV light and chlorination. He didn’t say why this was more preferable nor what regulations are in place with the Manitoba Office of Drinking Water and how those regulations affect what is proposed for the new water treatment plant.

At regular intervals throughout the evening, the meeting was punctuated by the perceived lack of accountability, transparency, and professionalism of Therrien and Couns. Melinda Warren and Glen Fuhl by people in the crowd and by Miller and Kuczynski.

At times the almost four-hour meeting veered onto topics against immigration, communism, appropriation of land, and other conspiracy theories.

Miller and Kuczynski felt the evening was very informative when asked if the meeting met their goal of informing residents.