Mayor says renaming committee needs budget, streamlining

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This article was published 27/02/2025 (193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg could soon consider a new budget for a citizens group tasked with addressing names that negatively impact the Indigenous community.

In January 2020, council approved Welcoming Winnipeg: Reconciling our History, a policy on naming and renaming places and historical markers.

Since its implementation, requests to rename monuments, parks, buildings and trails have been assessed by a committee of community members, who then make recommendations to city council.

Five years after the policy was approved, Mayor Scott Gillingham said it’s not working as well as it could.

“We have moments where Welcoming Winnipeg would make a recommendation on an application and council would reject (it)… And then applications were being sent in to Welcoming Winnipeg and it was taking a year to two years to turn around,” said Gillingham.

The mayor said a lack of resources, paired with a heavy workload, are to blame.

“I think we’re saddling the committee with work that really was never intended to be theirs. They were receiving applications that weren’t even complete,” said Gillingham.

He suggested the workload could be reduced by narrowing the scope of the naming requests directed to the committee.

A new third-party report on the policy makes more than 20 recommendations to improve it. The report proposes the city provide resources to its Indigenous relations division to better support the citizen committee, such as by adding dedicated staff to assist with applications.

The mayor said he expects the volunteer committee could receive funding in the future.

“My assumption is we’d call for more resources, perhaps more staff and more dollars in the budget,” said Gillingham.

The report suggests council refine the application process, which could set specific times to receive applications, put a cap on the annual number accepted and limit the number of applications per submitter.

It also suggests council streamline application requirements and set minimum standards for application completeness.

Next month, the mayor will raise a motion that asks council to order a city staff review of the report, which would propose changes and ways to pay for them. Council received a notice of that motion Thursday.

“I believe that we can ultimately hit the goals of the policy, which is to advance reconciliation, to recognize the importance of Indigenous places and names but… still have opportunity to recognize other places and other names in a city that’s increasingly diverse,” said Gillingham.

The report notes troubling feedback from volunteers on the committee, who reported their relationship with council has suffered.

“(The committee) feels it has experienced racism and misogyny when presenting (its) recommendations to council,” writes author Merrell-Ann S. Phare.

She suggests public support is also lacking.

“There has been generally negative and demoralizing commentary from the public,” writes Phare.

Gillingham said the feedback was disappointing.

“I was very sorry to hear that but that was their experience and I acknowledge that… I would like to see this policy be set up (so) that it becomes so successful, so streamlined (that) members of that committee never have to appear before council, that we never put them in (a)… potential conflict position,” he said.

The report recommends having city staff from the Indigenous relations division or other departments provide renaming presentations to executive policy committee and council, instead of members of the community committee.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, chairwoman of council’s human rights committee, said the concerns about racism and misogyny did not surprise her. Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) said one Welcoming Winnipeg presenter’s expertise was questioned during a presentation.

“(It is) upsetting… to be a citizen body that is created by council to go to that council and be not only misunderstood, but disrespected,” she said.

The councillor said she’s glad to see a call to assess the policy and hopes it will result in the committee receiving more support.

“I’ve been a longstanding advocate that they require a budget to do their work,” said Rollins.

The report finds there is a clear need to clarify the policy and its process.

A request to speak with someone from the Welcoming Winnipeg Committee was not granted.

A city spokesman redirected all questions to the mayor.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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