Although the premier and municipal politicians were gleefully smiling for the cameras when Reg "Santa Claus" Alcock came to town with a sack full
of gas tax money, taxpayers and motorists beware: most of this money will not go to fix our roads. Here's why:

There is no federal law in place to ensure that gas tax dollars are dedicated to fix our crumbling roads and infrastructure. Instead, the so-called new deal for cities requires gas tax money to be spent on "long-term sustainable green projects." Translation: gas tax revenues can fix your bike path, but not McGillvray Blvd. It's all about the federal government's futile attempt to meet its Kyoto Protocol commitments. Apparently, dodging pot holes down roads that look like something along the Gaza Strip are helping to reduce global warming.

With a federal election call looming, Manitoba hastily signed a deal with the feds that would see our province receive $165 million in new revenue over the next five years. Sounds like a lot of money, but considering how much Manitoba contributes to federal gas tax coffers on an annual basis, the return is a paltry sum. This year alone, Manitoba motorists will send $145 million to Ottawa, not including the GST.

But it is not so much the amount of money that is a sore spot, it's how the money can be spent. Or perhaps, how it can't be spent. Despite poll after poll showing that Manitobans want gas taxes treated as a user fees for our roads and hard infrastructure, municipalities like Winnipeg are going to engage in Enron-style accounting and take Winnipeg's share of the gas tax money --about $12 million this year - and dump it into one of the Kyoto friendly departments for things like sewer upgrades, transit, and bike paths. The city will then remove that same amount of money from those respective departments and re-allocate it to roads.

The challenge with the city's creative accounting skills is that there has been no plan put forward that will show us, the taxpayers, how it will work. Until we see some transparency from these departments, one can only assume that the money will not be allocated to fix roads.

The one person that should have been demanding changes to Ottawa's gas tax scheme was Premier Doer, who was conspicuously absent from the entire debate. When Mayors Katz and Burgess from Winnipeg and Brandon respectively were having an all out battle with the Association of Manitoba Municipalities on the allocation of the gas tax revenue (Brandon and Winnipeg wanted a bulk of the money as there are transit systems in both cities), the premier was no where to be found. When Winnipeggers overwhelmingly (72 per cent in a September poll) said they needed their roads repaired, Doer was again, missing in action. Doer should have done all he could to secure the best possible deal for Manitobans. Instead he chose to sit on the sidelines, wait for the money to appear, then smile for the cameras.

Now that the deal is signed and all of our politicians have kissed and made up, the question is whether or not any of our roads will actually be repaired. One thing is certain, if we do see some modest improvements to our infrastructure, Manitobans should remember the shadow of a premier throughout the entire debate.