An organization representing the company approached the city earlier this year to discuss building on the city’s east end, in the Transcona neighborhood, Klein said. “Again, the city saw no value in the opportunity and declined,” Klein said. He didn’t know if the facility was going to be a warehouse, a distribution center, or a cloud computing server node. As a result of the city’s failure, the facility is being built along CentrePort Canada Way, which is in northwest Winnipeg but in an area that is within the rural township of Rosser, Klein said.
The Council was kept in the dark
And then there’s the fact that elected aldermen haven’t heard a whisper about the proposal, said Klein, who is on the city’s standing policy committee on property, planning and development. Coun. Shawn Nason, who represents Transcona on the city council, says he learned about the proposal earlier this year through the landowner’s agent. He confirms that the city government never proposed it for elected officials to discuss. “It’s disappointing that the public service didn’t think to involve more people, including the local councilor in these conversations,” he said. “The financial spin-off from something like this to Transcona would be great,” he said Friday. Two City of Winnipeg representatives, when asked about their response to Klein’s claim that the city dropped the ball on the project, responded with similar responses via email. “In general, along with Economic Development Winnipeg, the public agency will engage in confidential discussions with businesses and stakeholders about privately owned operations and their interest in Winnipeg. The mayor and council members are not involved in these discussions. confidential discussions,” said Jeremy Davis. spokesman for Mayor Brian Bowman. “In these discussions, multiple considerations will be discussed and every effort will be made to reach an agreement that benefits Winnipeg taxpayers, contributes to the city’s economic development and meets the needs of supporters,” said David Driedger. public service representative. Klein said he knows some important negotiations are confidential, but he believes elected officials should have been brought into the loop. “We can go in camera behind closed doors. We go on camera all the time to have discussions about proposals, RFPs or decisions made in court or to get legal opinions. We do that on a regular basis,” he said. . “But we’ve never done it for such a big opportunity and it’s about me. Something of this magnitude, out of pure respect for every part of the city and every elected official, you should have sat them down and discussed it. “I think there would have been a different outcome.”
