‘I said, “Wow” about every five minutes’: Eadie replaces Rollins on city’s executive policy committee ’Scrappy’ councillor chosen to oversee billion-dollar sewage plant project By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 11:17 AM CST Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025 Last Modified: 6:03 PM CST Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025 Updates

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Mayor Scott Gillingham has appointed an outspoken councillor to Winnipeg city council’s executive policy committee and shuffled other portfolios in the wake of Coun. Sherri Rollins’ resignation this week.

Coun. Ross Eadie will assume the role as chair of the water, waste and environment committee, which is overseeing the billion-dollar renewal of the North End Water Pollution Control Centre.

“Councillor Eadie is scrappy, and sometimes you need scrappy around city hall,” Gillingham told reporters Thursday after announcing the shuffle. “He’s got a lot of experience, a depth of knowledge, certainly about water and waste, but about broader city issues.”

Gillingham said part of his decision to promote Eadie was the fact the councillor’s Mynarski ward hasn’t been represented at the executive policy level in more than 30 years.

Eadie said he was surprised to get a phone call from the mayor asking to join his inner circle.

“I said, “wow” about every five minutes,” he said.

Eadie said his first priority on committee will be to focus on the North End sewage plant and what effect U.S. president Donald Trump’s threat of a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian exports would have on the project’s cost.

In June, a city staff report warned the plant’s price could rise from the latest $2.38-billion estimate to reach nearly $3 billion.

Eadie was first elected to council in 2010. He served on the Winnipeg Police Board between 2014 and 2018 and again in 2022. In 2016, he was suspended from the board after a 2015 incident in which he went out for a night of drinking and ended up in the drunk tank.

In 2017, the police board reprimanded Eadie for comments he made about the possible demolition of a North End football stadium to make way for a new police station.

Gillingham said while his colleague is outspoken, he’s thoughtful, detailed and has the respect of the public service.

Eadie attributed his promotion to the work he did on the budget working group last year and said he wouldn’t have accepted the job if it was any other portfolio.

“Given the portfolio on how important it is — and it is very important to all Winnipeggers, and that’s the main reason I took it — (Gillingham) offered me what is our most difficult standing committee (with) departmental issues that we’re going to have to deal with for the next couple of years,” he said.

Evan Duncan, the councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood, was named the new chairman of the property and development committee. Rollins resigned Tuesday as chairwoman of the committee, a position that gave her a seat at EPC.

She told reporters she felt compelled to resign because of repeated instances related to the withholding of information by the administration, along with frustration with delays over hiring a police chief and a chief administrative officer.

Duncan said in the two years he’s been on council, he’s never had difficulty accessing information related to council or his ward.

“The public service, you know, they’re working hard, especially at the top administration level. And at the end of the day, when I request something, I get it,” he said. “I’m not following where that’s coming from on the lack of information, or accessibility. Not the case with me.”

Gillingham said he will work to keep the flow of information to councillors open.

Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) was named deputy mayor. He replaces Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West), who is now acting deputy mayor.

The two switched positions so Lukes would have more time to focus on her role as chair of public works, which focuses on several major files, including implementing Winnipeg Transit’s network overhaul, she said Thursday.

Lukes has previously discussed taking a step back from her role as deputy mayor with Gillingham.

“I said to the mayor, you know, listen, if you want to do a switcheroo, I’m fine with that,” she said. “And I guess he took me up on that.”

The roles of deputy mayor and acting deputy mayor are not EPC positions and are mostly a ceremonial capacity to represent the mayor at community events. If the deputy mayor is unavailable, the acting deputy mayor will assume the role.

Chambers was first appointed as acting deputy mayor under previous mayor Brian Bowman in 2021.

Lukes also cited her rapidly expanding ward as reason to want to offload some of her duties. According to census data between 2016 and 2021, the ward’s population grew by 12,245 people, or 28 per cent. Winnipeg’s total population grew by six per cent in the same time frame.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca