Winnipeg Minute: Issue 132

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

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• A new Abacus Data survey suggests 70% of Winnipeggers supported the Winnipeg Police Service's 10-day crackdown on open drug use and drug dealing. The crackdown, which ran from late June to early July, led to more than 100 arrests, 93 of them for outstanding warrants or breaches, 5 for drug possession, and 3 for possession for the purpose of trafficking. In the same survey, 57% of respondents said they want increased access to treatment alongside enforcement. Police resumed the effort in August, this time paired with community outreach teams, and enforcement is continuing in five zones, including the Exchange District, until the initiative is reassessed in November. Police Chief Gene Bowers has praised the collaboration with outreach organizations and says statistics on the renewed sweep are coming.
  
  
• Furby Street residents are calling on the Province to change legislation so the City can set a cap on how long properties can sit vacant before seizing them. The neighbours, who have formed a group called Furby United Residents, say a boarded-up house in the 500 block of Furby has not actually been vacant for the past year and has become a hub for drug use. Residents argue that owners in several Winnipeg neighbourhoods can leave boarded-up buildings sitting for years by meeting the bare minimum of City bylaw requirements. The group also wants the Province to provide more supportive transitional housing across the city, saying their neighbourhood was chosen to house many people moved from encampments, often without long-term supports. Asked on September 25th why the Province will not let the City set its own vacancy cap, Premier Wab Kinew declined to answer, calling it "a civic election question". Progressive Conservative Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Critic Jeff Bereza argued the Province could move faster on derelict properties by changing regulations.
  
  
• The City has ordered a Wolseley perfumer to either rezone his home or stop serving walk-in customers, and he says either option would put him out of business. Michael O'Malley has run La Parfumerie from his house at the corner of Westminster Avenue and Evanson Street since 1999, and Councillors gave the shop a 10-year conditional use order after the City rejected his zoning permit application in 2015. That order expired a year ago, and this summer City staff told him he was not complying with a zoning bylaw, which the City amended in 2016 to make clear that retail sales are not permitted in home-based businesses. O'Malley estimates rezoning would cost him $50,000 in applications and renovations, while ending walk-in traffic could cost upwards of $30,000, and his petition had gathered at least 1,478 signatures by September 28th. Daniel McIntyre Councillor Cindy Gilroy says she has asked the City not to enforce the bylaw and, if re-elected, plans to seek another conditional use order and a review of home-based business zoning rules. However, the earliest a new order could come is late November, while the City wants him in compliance by November 10th, in a season O'Malley says brings in half his annual income. Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce President Loren Remillard argued that City Council and Administration have been focused on procedure and enforcement "without concern for the outcome".
  
  
• Nick Kasper, President of the United Firefighters of Winnipeg, is warning that the city is in the middle of an "arson crisis" and is calling on Council to invest more in stopping fires before they start. Kasper says vacant homes and buildings keep burning in high-risk neighbourhoods, and that Winnipeg reports among the highest losses of property and life to structure fires in Canada year after year. He blames underinvestment in fire prevention, public education, and fire investigation, noting that the City has known since 2020 that its fire investigations branch needed to double in size, yet staffing in those areas has not increased. Because police cannot open a file until investigators determine how a fire started, he says the understaffed branch is struggling to keep up. The union is also pushing for a new arson task force, modelled on one that brought together the Office of the Fire Commissioner, the Winnipeg Fire Department, and the Winnipeg Police Service in the early 2000s before being disbanded shortly after 2010. Vacant buildings have become an issue in the mayoral race, with Mayor Scott Gillingham maintaining that the City has addressed many of the causes and challenger Kevin Klein proposing an escalating property tax on landlords who fail to secure their properties. 
  
  
• Winnipeg's mayoral candidates rolled out a new round of pledges, with just under a month to go before the municipal election. Kevin Klein would ask City Council to impose a municipal announcement blackout 30 days before each election, bar regular Council and Committee meetings in the 45 days before a vote, and require staff in a Councillor's or the Mayor's office who manage an incumbent's campaign to take unpaid leave, arguing the current rules give incumbents an unfair advantage. Mayor Scott Gillingham proposed an Urban Technology Review Committee of Council, including at least three non-voting outside experts, to decide how the City handles artificial intelligence, e-scooters, drones, data centres, and driverless vehicles. Don Woodstock promised Royal Canadian Legion and Army, Navy and Air Force veterans' facilities annual grants of up to $100,000 each and a full rebate of their municipal property taxes, which he says he would offset by bringing engineering work in-house, eliminating outside audits, and joining the recycled aggregate business. Umar Hayat pledged to expand the budget for community-based outreach services and fund an $8-million mobile crisis medical response team that would work independently from police. Noah Redden wants light rail along the Main Street-St. Mary's Road corridor, a kind of project Winnipeg Transit estimated in 2023 could cost from $2 billion to $5 billion for a 20-kilometer route. Redden suggested pausing the Chief Peguis Trail extension, estimated at up to $899 million, and the Kenaston Boulevard expansion, at up to $757 million, to free up money, and said federal and provincial funding could help cover the cost.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Do any of the promises from Winnipeg's mayoral candidates appeal to you, or are there other issues you'd like to see candidates focus on?

Write in and let us know!

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