Winnipeg Minute: Issue 131

Winnipeg Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Winnipeg politics

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• City Council has rejected a set of changes that would have stripped several rules from Winnipeg Transit Plus, the accessible transit service provided by companies the City hires. The changes would have repealed a 2023 Council decision requiring Transit Plus drivers to be employees of those contractors, removed a clause tying any inflationary increases paid to contractors to raises for their drivers, and ended a requirement that public reports on Transit Plus contracts name the competing firms, their bid amounts, and how they scored. The Public Works Committee added the changes through a walk-on motion when it approved a new contract for the service on September 10th, and the Executive Policy Committee approved them on September 15th. Waverley West Councillor Janice Lukes, who chairs the Public Works Committee, had argued the employee rule made it harder for firms to find drivers and that dropping the bid details would simplify the administrative process. St. Vital Councillor Brian Mayes called the changes a "ridiculous anti-worker provision", and mayoral candidate Kevin Klein and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 also urged Council to reject them. Mayor Scott Gillingham, who voted for the changes at the Executive Policy Committee, said that vote was due to a misunderstanding of their impact.
  
  
• Mayor Scott Gillingham and Daniel McIntyre Councillor Cindy Gilroy have put forward a motion asking the Province to give Council the power to place a Councillor charged with a criminal offence on a paid leave of absence. The legislative changes would let Council bar a charged member from exercising the powers of the office while on leave, including attending or taking part in meetings of Council, its committees, Council seminars, boards, and commissions. The motion, tabled on September 24th, follows Transcona Councillor Russ Wyatt's announcement that he is running for re-election. Wyatt faces sexual assault charges in two separate alleged incidents in 2023 and 2025, and has said he has done nothing wrong and is presumed innocent. Council has already stripped Wyatt of some committee duties but could not force him to step away entirely.
  
  
• Mayor Scott Gillingham is proposing a new growth office, called Winnipeg GO, as part of his re-election campaign. The office would be led by a new Chief Growth Officer reporting to the City's Chief Administrative Officer, and would consolidate economic development and infrastructure staff currently spread across departments. Its functions would include maintaining an inventory of shovel-ready infrastructure projects, working with Manitoba's new provincewide economic development agency, and running a "311 for small business" service connecting businesses with human case managers. Gillingham argued that new investment often goes to cities that can say yes faster than others, and that the City needs to bring scattered people and plans together to grow to a million people. He said at least 80% of the new unit would be staffed through redeployment, with a maximum of six new full-time positions. Chris Lorenc, president and CEO of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, endorsed the proposal.
  
  
• Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Kevin Klein is criticizing Mayor Scott Gillingham's proposed Chief Growth Officer, arguing the City should improve its existing services and economic development efforts rather than create another senior title, another office, and up to six new positions. Klein questioned whether a new title would improve results, pointing to the City's earlier creation of a Chief Construction Officer position. He also accused Gillingham of leaning on figures for the wider census metropolitan area, where Statistics Canada reports employment has grown by more than 53,500 jobs since October 2022, and argued that growth in places like Rosser and Headingley should be reported separately from growth within the city. As an example, Klein pointed to CentrePort, where he says industrial development moved more quickly in the RM of Rosser than on the Winnipeg side. Instead of a new growth office, he wants the City to publish separate economic figures for Winnipeg and the capital region, and to provide a public inventory of major City projects showing costs, timelines, and reasons for delays. Klein is also calling for faster permitting, quicker decisions from City Hall, and priority development of CentrePort South and other industrial lands. He summed up his position by arguing that "growth is not a title" but is measured in permits issued, plants opening, and families staying.
  
  
• The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has given Winnipeg an F in its first-ever Canada Municipal Report Card, which graded cities on cost burden, regulatory burden, and overall business friendliness. The City did fairly well on property tax fairness, with a reasonable tax ratio for commercial properties, but lost marks for offering no property tax relief aimed at small businesses. Like most municipalities, Winnipeg also fell short on regulatory burden. The CFIB wants permit-processing timelines posted publicly, an easy way for businesses to track their applications, and a red tape feedback portal on the City's website, which Winnipeg does not have. It also wants cities to limit the toll summer construction takes on small businesses and to compensate those that lose money. With the report card landing mid-campaign, the CFIB is asking mayoral candidates for plans to limit property tax hikes, control costs, cut red tape, and speed up permitting.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

On a scale of 1-10, how engaged are you with the upcoming municipal election?

1 = Not paying attention at all
10 = Following everything closely

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