Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz has confirmed to The Great Canadian Talk Show that he never told provincial Justice Minister Dave Chomiak that the city was opposed to, or could not afford, refunding cash-grab photo radar tickets.
Yesterday in Question Period, a frazzled Chomiak hid behind the excuse the city was to blame for his failure to right the injustices suffered by thousands of car owners, dinged with huge speeding fines despite missing or misleading signage, tickets issued when no workers were actually present in construction zones, or in outright speed traps.
"I said to the mayor today, will you pay back that money? They said, no. We have no legal right. We're not touching it. It's $10 million. We're going to take it out of our police budget." Chomiak said in the Legislature yesterday. (Today Chomiak resorted to hiding behind the police chief Keith McCaskill, who has never been put on the record about the propriety of his department being funded by illegally obtained fines.)
Today in a noontime interview, Katz stated he had no conversation with Chomiak yesterday, and had last spoken to him 12 days ago. (edit: The final version of Hansard corrected the record, and Chomiak did NOT, in fact, say he had spoken with Katz "today", as in, on Tuesday.)
Katz also said that the ball was in the provinces court, so to speak, if refunds were warranted.
"#1, I did not speak to him (on Tuesday). #2, whatever the province does we will abide by. It's their legislation and we are a creation of the province. If the province makes a decision, we're not in a position to say we're not going to refund. Yours truly has never made comments like that. Never will."
Katz went on to explain "I have worked with the Minister and we have an excellent rapport. There is very little doubt in my mind that he's under extreme pressure from 4 sides- the media, the public, within his own party and from the opposition... but we did not speak yesterday."
The only civic politician who has made any statement about the city not being able to afford refunding their share of ill-gotten fines was Councillor Gord Steeves. He has agreed to appear on our show tomorrow, Thursday at 4.30 PM.
Also appearing on the show tomorrow at 5.05 PM, will be CTV Vice-President and General Manager Bill Hanson, who will preview the planned open house this weekend as part of the Save Local TV campaign.
Today at 4.30 PM, the Mayor of Leaf Rapids, Ed Charrier, makes his second appearance on the show. He's going to follow up on his 30 day challenge to the NDP government to deliver much needed services to his community as they batttle rampant alcohol and social problems.
And at 5.10 PM, Kelly Dehn of CTV will join us with his weekly Crimewatch segment, in a new time slot on Wednesdays to accomodate his busy schedule.
****************
