Gillingham says he’ll run again to usher through key projects

Mayor Scott Gillingham says his work on key projects is far from done, so he plans to run for re-election.

In an interview Thursday, Gillingham confirmed he will seek a second term, after becoming mayor in the fall 2022 election.

“Completing several key projects is going to take more than a year and a half. There are many important projects for the City of Winnipeg that I really would like to see through,” he said.

The mayor listed the long-awaited $3-billion north end sewage treatment plant upgrade as a top priority; it would greatly reduce pollution released by the plant and boost sewage capacity. The city estimates it would have just four to six years of capacity left to process sewage sludge without the upgrade.

Gillingham said construction projects slated for Route 90/Kenaston Boulevard, the Chief Peguis Trail and the Arlington Bridge are also key, ongoing priorities.

While he campaigned on promises to reduce homelessness, Gillingham said that issue has posed the greatest challenges so far.

“The sticking point, the bottleneck, is we don’t have enough housing units to move people out of encampments and into housing with wrap-around supports… The province is working on getting more housing units available (and) we, as a city, have made significant zoning changes and reforms to get more housing built more quickly,” he said.

Gillingham narrowly won his initial mayoral term with 27.5 per cent of the vote, while former Winnipeg mayor and Ontario MPP Glen Murray claimed second-place with 25.3 per cent.

Incumbent Winnipeg mayors have proven tough to beat.

Meanwhile, Gillingham has faced some criticism over the past year for backing off some of his election promises.

After initially saying he would respect a non-binding plebiscite in which 65 per cent of Winnipeggers voted “no” to reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians, the mayor changed his mind last year.

The intersection reopened on June 27.

“My mind changed, I think, for good and practical reasons, and that was a $73-million cost to repair the membrane and five years of traffic delays at the intersection. When we looked at that, it made more sense practically to open the intersection,” said Gillingham.

The mayor also promised during his campaign to raise property taxes by 3.5 per cent per year. Instead, the 2025 budget imposed a 5.95 per cent increase, marking the largest annual tax hike since the 1990s and adding $121 to the bill for owners of a sample single-family home.

That was followed by two other major fee hikes that took effect April 1. The annual per-home garbage fee rose to $254 (prorated to $190.50 for 2025) from $93, and the typical home’s sewer rate increased by $18.67 per month, which will add up to $168.03 for the remainder of 2025.

When combined with the tax hike, a sample home will pay $386.50 more this year.

When asked if large tax and fee hikes could be expected in the next council term, Gillingham said no decision has been made yet.

“We made difficult decisions in the last several months when it comes to rates and taxes because we’re doing what needs to be done. We have a growing city (with growing costs),” he said.

Murray, the mayoral runnerup, did not respond by deadline to questions about whether he will run again.

Kevin Klein, a former Winnipeg city councillor and Manitoba cabinet minister who finished third in the 2022 vote, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Social enterprise expert Shaun Loney, the fourth-place mayoral candidate in 2022, said he will not run in 2026.

In an interview, Loney said he had hoped the current city council would explore how social enterprises could make the city safer, such as by helping people who have committed crimes find jobs.

Loney said initial discussions with the mayor on that topic didn’t produce action and he’d now prefer to focus on his current work as a consultant who helps organizations set up social enterprises.

“My door remains open to working with mayor and council, but they first have to recognize that in order to get the city we want, we have to deploy different strategies,” he said.

Past mayoral candidate Don Woodstock said he will run for mayor again.

The next Winnipeg city council election is scheduled for Oct. 28, 2026.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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