Mayor prioritizes housing starts in state of city speech, says safety officers days away from boarding buses

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This article was published 09/02/2024 (603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city Winnipeg will aim to approve thousands of housing units by the end of November, and transit users should start seeing a new safety presence on buses in just over a week.

During his second state of the city address Friday, Mayor Scott Gillingham told an audience of more than 1,200 at the convention centre that community safety officers will soon be patrolling Winnipeg Transit vehicles and shelters.

“Our new community safety team will be in service 10 short days from now, patrolling our transit system…. In less than one year, we have gone from concept to delivery. Now, I don’t know how many of you have ever worked in government but that is light-speed in our world,” Gillingham said at the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event.

In January, the Winnipeg Police Association, which represents Winnipeg Police Service officers and civilian staff, filed a grievance over concerns the 21 community safety officers would be taking on police duties.

Gillingham told media that isn’t delaying the project.

“We’re going full steam ahead to get those (safety officers) deployed and onto our transit system,” he said.

The speech also promised a focus on housing production this year.

“Too many people are struggling to find a place to live in our community. We have to act now,” the mayor said.

Gillingham announced a plan to work with councillors, city staff, business leaders and community groups to get 8,000 new housing units approved for development by Nov. 30. The target would include single homes, apartments and condos, which could include previously proposed projects that have not yet received final approval.

After the speech, he told media reaching the target is doable but will be a stretch for the city, noting it underlines the urgency of the situation.

The mayor’s office said there were about 5,400 housing starts in the city last year.

Gillingham said a “whole-city approach” is needed to make sure housing developments are approved as promptly as possible.

“I’ve certainly asked all of our departments, including the public works department, to see themselves as a housing department to help us meet that need,” he said.

In recent years, multiple city councillors have complained that the provincial municipal board sometimes blocks council-approved housing projects, since the board has the power to reverse city land-use decisions.

Premier Wab Kinew told reporters he’s “very interested” in reviewing the legislation that gave the municipal board that power and possibly revising it.

“I think there’s some quick steps we can take in that same direction to help support the mayor’s vision and the vision that we all have of getting more housing built in our province,” said Kinew.

Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard said he was glad to hear the transit safety officers will be in place soon.

“We need to make sure people can arrive to work and get back home safely. (We’re) really excited,” he said, adding he also supports the focus on housing.

“We hear from our members all the time, their employees are having difficulty accessing housing or they are accessing housing but at a cost that’s so significant that it puts wage pressures on the employer,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gillingham also told the crowd that he will task the city’s director of innovation to pitch how best to use artificial intelligence to improve services in Winnipeg. He said those ideas are expected before Canada Day.

For example, the mayor said AI could be used to improve 311 services in such ways as boosting language-translation options.

“One of our greatest strengths as a city, and what we see the most of, is new people coming to Winnipeg from all different parts of the world,” he said. “Perhaps we could use AI to more quickly and readily communicate with those for whom English is not their first language.”

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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