After a complaint about the 2010 Assinboine bike lane consultation, the City Auditor admonished the consulting process for leaving many area businesses off the stakeholder list and for not clearly stating possible affects on trafic flow, slanting the process to feedback from the bike lobby. Councilors swore, it wouldn’t happen again.

After a truck route was changed in Transcona, a 2011 report from the Provincial Ombudsman found “residents potentially impacted by this decision may not have been aware of this situation”. The City had to use plain language to explain what was proposed, so people had a fair chance to comment. And again, city council agreed.

But it seems the Public Works department in Winnipeg want things streamlined and simple and with no deviations from their plans. It’s like they are allergic to informed feedback from businesses and residents and drivers – especially if a bike lane is involved. They even kept at least 7 city councilors in the dark about throttling traffic flow through downtown, for the new bike lanes.

Councilors say, they believe in hearing from the people, we want your input.

In this edition of the Winnipeg Watchdog, Marty reminds all candidates and voters, the principles for proper public consultation set out by the city Auditor and Manitoba Ombudsman seem to have been forgotten in 2018, despite council promising to follow those rules.

Click below to hear more from Marty Gold.