Winnipeg Free Press
Monday, January 30th, 2006
By Mary Agnes Welch
WANT to be a city councillor? You'd best be patient. You might have to wait 11 years.
That's the average length of service among current Winnipeg city councillors, who tend to stay in power longer than their big-city counterparts in the rest of Canada.
Ottawa's 23 councillors come a close second, averaging about 10.8 years, but Winnipeg's councillors easily beat Vancouver and Halifax, which have relatively inexperienced governments.
That, along with news that two councillors are old enough to receive both a city pension and a paycheque, has prompted the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce to revive its long-standing call for term limits and other civic reforms.
Dave Angus, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, says Winnipeg's city hall needs more fresh faces and should look to other cities for new ways to elect councillors.
"City council shouldn't be a career but a mission," said Angus.
"You add value to the city and then you move aside to encourage someone who is fresher and has some new ideas."
Councillors rarely retire, and it's difficult for challengers to overcome the power of incumbency, said Angus.
The chamber, which has been quite vocal about urban issues in the last several years, expects to release a study next month detailing ways to improve city council and encourage more citizen participation.
It will include a renewed demand for two-term limits and a call to move council closer to the slate system. That's the system used in Vancouver -- with some controversy -- to elect councillors from the city at large instead of from individual wards. A list of city-wide candidates is presented to voters who then pick their top choices. If there are 12 council seats, the top 12 vote-getters win. Slates of candidates often converge to pool their resources and hold sway over council, much like a party system. That, combined with the West Coast's famously volatile political scene, tends to add new faces to council every election.
Two years ago, Vancouver contemplated switching to a ward system like Winnipeg's, but voters in a referendum opted to stay with the slate system.
The chamber is also exploring the idea of ballot questions -- specific queries posed to voters on anything from new taxes to rapid transit.
Ballot questions tend to allow a thorough public debate on an issue and spawn deeper civic engagement, said Angus.
The chamber would like to see more city-wide debates like the one that gripped Winnipeg during former mayor Glen Murray's "new deal" proposal three years ago.
Coun. Peter De Smedt, who is serving his second term, is city hall's lone proponent of term limits, but says the idea has little support on council. He says he would have difficulty finding a councillor willing to second a motion proposing term limits.
De Smedt is also one of two councillors who is receiving his city pension as well as a paycheck. Coun. Harvey Smith is the second, and Coun. Harry Lazarenko will receive his pension next year if he runs for re-election in October.
Councillors must begin taking their pension when they turn 69 as mandated by law.
The amount De Smedt and Smith receive is minimal -- about $3,000 a year based on their taxable salary of about $37,000.
Backbench councillors earn about $55,000 a year but a third is non-taxable and doesn't count toward their pension. Members of the mayor's cabinet earn a little more, and some long-serving councillors, including Lazarenko, are still part of an old pension plan that was terminated in 1992. Lazarenko estimates that his pension will be worth roughly $12,000 a year after 25 years as a councillor.
Lazarenko is one of six councillors who have served more than 10 years on council, which some believe has helped create a sense of stagnation at city hall.
Calgary's councillors have served an average of eight years, and Vancouver's councillors have served an average of less than two years, in part because of an election last fall that saw a host of new faces in government.
Edmonton city council is also relatively new. More than half its members have served less than five years. The difference is due in part to amalgamation, which tends to create turnover among municipal politicians and has hit cities such as Montreal and Halifax only recently. Winnipeg was one of the first to merge in 1971.
Toronto is also believed to have a council made up largely of rookies. Staff there didn't have time to research the start dates of all 44 councillors, but they said it's unlikely the average length of service would top Winnipeg's 11 years.
There were 14 new councillors elected in 2003 and there are two vacancies now.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca