Winnipeg Is Not For Sale rally this Wednesday,March 26th at 8:30 AM
Hello everyone!
This is a reminder about the upcoming Winnipeg Is Not For Sale rally this Wednesday,
March 26th at 8:30 AM at City Hall. Please forward this message as widely as
possible to let everyone know about WINFS and the Rally!
Winnipeg Is Not For Sale
WINFS grew out of a concern about the Economic Opportunities Commission report,
issued Summer 2007, that laid out an aggressive plan to reduce the Business Tax by
radically restructuring how the City operates. These proposals included selling
naming rights to city buildings (like the Zoo or community centres), contracting out
unionized city-worker jobs to private, non-union companies or even volunteers,
increasing use of public-private partnerships (a.k.a. P3s), and the selling off of
existing publicly owned facilities.
While many of these proposals are not in the most recent budget (due to be passed by
City Council on March 26th), some are (specifically an interest in further use of
P3s). We feel that Mayor Sam Katz is planning on implementing many of these
proposals, and that this year's budget is a lead-up to that. We feel that a strong
response to Katz' privatization agenda now, coupled with an ongoing campaign against
further privatization, can stop or hopefully even reverse this threat to a
people-orientated City of Winnipeg.
Some of the cuts present in this budget are as follows:
Handitransit: $800,000 cut
Park Grass Maintenance: $2,200,000 cut
Tree Planting: $1,230,000 cut
Sidewalks Construction and Maintenance: $3,000,000 cut
Litter collection and street cleaning: $800,000 cut
Crime Prevention Initiatives: $900,000 cut
Social Support in Community services: $440,000 cut
Arts, Entertainment and Cultural Grants $320,000 cut (In addition to the $400,000
cut to public art in the Capital budget passed in December)
Graffiti Removal $ 235,000 cut
(Thanks for Councilor Gerbasi for forwarding this information on her newsletter.)
Rally on Budget Day
As our first response to Katz' privatization agenda, we are organizing a Rally to
let City Council know we are watching them as they pass the budget. We will be
meeting outside Winnipeg City Hall at 510 Main Street, at 8:30 AM on Wednesday,
March 26th, 2008. There will be a short section of speeches on the impact of the
Budget and why we oppose it, and then at 9:15 AM we will be heading into the City
Council chambers to observe the councilors vote on the budget. We encourage anyone
who can stay during the day on the 26th to stick around as long as they can; the
more people we have still around when the Budget finally gets passed, the better!
There will be a placard-making session prior to the Rally; if you are interested in
helping out, come to the University of Winnipeg tomorrow, Tuesday, March 25th at
4:00 PM. We'll be meeting in the Mezzanine, near the Spence St. entrance. If you
have any placard-making materials (like markers, tape, et cetera), please bring them
along - we'll try to have supplies available, but it's better to have too much than
too little!
Contacting your City Councilor
While many of the Councilors have made up their mind about the budget, it's still
important to register your opposition to the budget with them. You can find a list
of City Councilor contact information, including e-mail addresses and phone numbers,
at http://www.winnipeg.ca/council/. When you contact your councilor, some things to
bring up could include the four points off the poster:
1. We support publicly owned-and-operated services.
2. We oppose public-private partnerships.
3. We support a business tax.
4. We oppose service cuts.
Follow-up meeting to the Rally
The campaign continues after the rally! We will be meeting this Saturday, March
29th, at 11 AM at the University of Winnipeg in the Bulman Student Centre to decide
where the campaign should go from here. While Wednesday's rally is important, the
fight is not over - we need to keep up the pressure on Katz and co. to keep our city
in the hands of the people, not the Chamber of Commerce.
We will be announcing the follow-up meeting at the Rally on Wednesday, but before,
during, and after the rally, if you can ask your friends, family, neighbours, and
co-workers to come out to the follow-up meeting, that would be appreciated.
Any questions can be sent to antiprivatizedwinnipeg@gmail.com.
Thanks for your support, and let's make our presence felt this Wednesday!
In Solidarity,
Winnipeg Is Not For Sale
This is a reminder about the upcoming Winnipeg Is Not For Sale rally this Wednesday,
March 26th at 8:30 AM at City Hall. Please forward this message as widely as
possible to let everyone know about WINFS and the Rally!
Winnipeg Is Not For Sale
WINFS grew out of a concern about the Economic Opportunities Commission report,
issued Summer 2007, that laid out an aggressive plan to reduce the Business Tax by
radically restructuring how the City operates. These proposals included selling
naming rights to city buildings (like the Zoo or community centres), contracting out
unionized city-worker jobs to private, non-union companies or even volunteers,
increasing use of public-private partnerships (a.k.a. P3s), and the selling off of
existing publicly owned facilities.
While many of these proposals are not in the most recent budget (due to be passed by
City Council on March 26th), some are (specifically an interest in further use of
P3s). We feel that Mayor Sam Katz is planning on implementing many of these
proposals, and that this year's budget is a lead-up to that. We feel that a strong
response to Katz' privatization agenda now, coupled with an ongoing campaign against
further privatization, can stop or hopefully even reverse this threat to a
people-orientated City of Winnipeg.
Some of the cuts present in this budget are as follows:
Handitransit: $800,000 cut
Park Grass Maintenance: $2,200,000 cut
Tree Planting: $1,230,000 cut
Sidewalks Construction and Maintenance: $3,000,000 cut
Litter collection and street cleaning: $800,000 cut
Crime Prevention Initiatives: $900,000 cut
Social Support in Community services: $440,000 cut
Arts, Entertainment and Cultural Grants $320,000 cut (In addition to the $400,000
cut to public art in the Capital budget passed in December)
Graffiti Removal $ 235,000 cut
(Thanks for Councilor Gerbasi for forwarding this information on her newsletter.)
Rally on Budget Day
As our first response to Katz' privatization agenda, we are organizing a Rally to
let City Council know we are watching them as they pass the budget. We will be
meeting outside Winnipeg City Hall at 510 Main Street, at 8:30 AM on Wednesday,
March 26th, 2008. There will be a short section of speeches on the impact of the
Budget and why we oppose it, and then at 9:15 AM we will be heading into the City
Council chambers to observe the councilors vote on the budget. We encourage anyone
who can stay during the day on the 26th to stick around as long as they can; the
more people we have still around when the Budget finally gets passed, the better!
There will be a placard-making session prior to the Rally; if you are interested in
helping out, come to the University of Winnipeg tomorrow, Tuesday, March 25th at
4:00 PM. We'll be meeting in the Mezzanine, near the Spence St. entrance. If you
have any placard-making materials (like markers, tape, et cetera), please bring them
along - we'll try to have supplies available, but it's better to have too much than
too little!
Contacting your City Councilor
While many of the Councilors have made up their mind about the budget, it's still
important to register your opposition to the budget with them. You can find a list
of City Councilor contact information, including e-mail addresses and phone numbers,
at http://www.winnipeg.ca/council/. When you contact your councilor, some things to
bring up could include the four points off the poster:
1. We support publicly owned-and-operated services.
2. We oppose public-private partnerships.
3. We support a business tax.
4. We oppose service cuts.
Follow-up meeting to the Rally
The campaign continues after the rally! We will be meeting this Saturday, March
29th, at 11 AM at the University of Winnipeg in the Bulman Student Centre to decide
where the campaign should go from here. While Wednesday's rally is important, the
fight is not over - we need to keep up the pressure on Katz and co. to keep our city
in the hands of the people, not the Chamber of Commerce.
We will be announcing the follow-up meeting at the Rally on Wednesday, but before,
during, and after the rally, if you can ask your friends, family, neighbours, and
co-workers to come out to the follow-up meeting, that would be appreciated.
Any questions can be sent to antiprivatizedwinnipeg@gmail.com.
Thanks for your support, and let's make our presence felt this Wednesday!
In Solidarity,
Winnipeg Is Not For Sale