Dear Mr. Mayor:

Over the past couple of months you have taken a lot of heat over your proposed "New Deal." That should come as no surprise.

First, Mr. Mayor, your new deal is not revenue neutral; it's a tax increase. The idea of City Hall's coffers ballooning by $120 million (or is it $80 million now that you have taken the natural gas and energy taxes off the table ) is not palatable, particularly since we are already taxed to death in this city. Many people question if the money is going to go where it's supposed to (that would be fixing our infrastructure, just in case you forgot) and not spent on street parties, arenas, the perpetually fledgling Symphony, or arts grants.

Second, Mr. Mayor, most Winnipeggers have a hard time believing that City Hall has tightened its belt. Your former CAO stated in the 2002 Annual Report that "in 1990, we had over 11,000 employees; at the end of 2002, we had fewer than 8,500." But according to the City's 2002 Compensation Report nearly 11,000 T-4 slips were issued last year. No doubt you can appreciate the confusion here. Perhaps some clarification from you is in order

Third, Mr. Mayor, your deal contains no protection for taxpayers. Your deal gives future mayors and councillors a blank cheque to raise user fees year after year after year, without ever having to seek the approval of those who are forced to pay the bills. If you want more information on this type of legislation, please read the Province of Manitoba's Balanced Budget, Debt Repayment and Taxpayer Protection Act. Please note, Mr. Mayor, this legislation is not perfect, but it's a good start.

Lastly Mr. Mayor, the new 5 cent gas tax just won't fly, as we already pay 27 cents per litre on gas. Now I understand why you have proposed this - you want to encourage more people to use public transportation, in fact that seems to be the only way for anyone to save money from your "new deal." But let's be serious here for a moment, Mr. Mayor. Do you honestly believe a family living in suburbia is going to want to pack up their kids with all of the essentials kids need in a day and cram them onto a bus Not likely.

As I would not want it to be construed that I am simply criticizing or a "naysayer" Mr. Mayor, I offer up this alternative - Municipal Roadway Trust (MRT). You may recall this from my pre-budget submission to City Hall many months ago. As part of our annual Gas Tax Honesty Campaign the CTF has put forward a proposal to return half of all federal gas tax revenues to all of Canada's municipalities. In Manitoba that would be an injection of $64 million - $36 million going to Winnipeg and $28 million for the remaining 200 municipalities. Here is the appealing part for you, Mr. Mayor: even Paul Martin has found religion on the cities agenda as municipal finance issues is expected to form a large component of the 2004 federal Liberal campaign platform.

This is the CTF's MRT in a nutshell:

• Devote half of all gas tax collections ($2.2 billion annually) to cities - large and small - for roadway improvements in a three-year renewable program based on their contribution to GDP;
  
• Empower the federal auditor general (AG) to audit the program annually and recommend successor year penalties for cities that misuse funds for toilets on bridges, bocce ball courts, etc.;
  
• Provinces wishing to emulate the MRT model could establish parallel funding arrangements or piggy-back with Ottawa in bi-lateral federal provincial agreements.

I am sure that you would agree, Mr. Mayor, that all taxpayers deserve better than their governments coming back to them time and again for more and more money.

Yours sincerely,