Katz proposes 'P3' funding for new police stations

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz, while campaigning for re-election Wednesday, proposed a P3— public-private partnership— approach to building new police stations.

The proposed arrangement would result in three new district police stations for Winnipeg, including the new East District Station near Dugald Road that will start construction next year, Katz said.

"I propose that all three new district stations be built through public-private partnerships to ensure taxpayers' dollars are spent wisely and efficiently," he said Wednesday.

City council had voted last year to delay construction of the new police stations because of competing priorities in the capital budget. But under the P3 model offinancing, capital projects can be built sooner while eliminating financial risks to taxpayers, Katz said.

"P3s mean a building or project can be built sooner and at a better cost. And that is something as mayor, I believe we need to explore," he said.

He pointed to the city's Charleswood Bridge as a project that was finished on time under a public-private partnership.

'Cost overruns' features of P3s: rival

Katz is running against three other candidates in the Oct. 25 civic election: Kaj Hasselriis, Marianne Cerilli and Ron Pollock.

Cerilli accused Katz Wednesday of moving public assets to private companies, and pointed to a cost study of the P3 project on the Charleswood Bridge done by University of Manitoba economist John Loxley, who found it cost taxpayers $1.4-million morethan if the bridge had been built entirely with public funds.

"The experience of P3s across Canada and around the world is one of cost overruns and loss of public accountability and control," Cerilli said in a news release Wednesday.

"If his approach to P3s is anything like his parking lot deal that gives him a one dollar, 16-year lease on prime city land, Winnipeg will be scammed again."

Cerilli was referring to a vote Sept. 27 in which city council voted 10-5 to extend its lease of a gravel parking lot just outside the CanWest Global baseball park — a park that Katz, as owner of the Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball team, helped build before he took office in 2004.

Some councillors claimed that Katz was letting his business interests put him into a conflict of interest as mayor.

Katz left the room during the discussion and the vote on the lease.