Winnipeg Free Press
Tuesday January 18 2005
DELAYS and a cash crunch have forced the city to give back about $2 million in federal and provincial funding for bike paths and new transit programs.
A city report says funding for the WinSmart program -- a collection of projects designed to encourage transit use, bike-riding and walking -- will likely shrink from $14.3 million to $11 million.
Mayor Sam Katz and his executive policy committee will discuss the report tomorrow.
The WinSmart program was cost-shared equally between all three levels of government, meaning the city will also save about $1 million by scaling back the projects.
"As a result of the due diligence process and owing to budget constraints and the passage of time since the urban transportation showcase program was initiated, a new option for implementing WinSmart was developed," says the city report.
That means only 18 projects, not 26, will get funding. It's not yet clear which projects are on the chopping block. The original money funded improvements to downtown walkways, a better bus system to Selkirk, technological improvements to city buses and a "green corridor" of bike and walking paths down Pembina Highway.
Word that the WinSmart project was in trouble trickled out of city hall last fall, the same time that councillors were mulling the fate of the city's now-dead bus rapid transit system.
Then, it was feared WinSmart funding would almost be cut in half.