The incumbent candidate for mayor made promises Thursday aimed at making downtown Winnipeg cleaner.
Scott Gillingham says that if re-elected, he would expand on two initiatives introduced during his first term, including adding a sixth neighbourhood action team dedicated to downtown.
“A cleaner city is important to everybody. I believe that the way our properties look really reflects how we feel about ourselves. Winnipeg needs to be a cleaner city,” he said during a news conference in front of city hall.
Workers on the teams are connected to 311 and trained to perform a variety of tasks such as filling potholes, trimming trees and removing graffiti, instead of having separate crews for each job. The city began with three seven-person teams last year and increased to five this year, with teams rotating through the 15 wards.
The new downtown team would receive referrals from 311 calls within its designated area, and co-ordinate with the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ and Exchange District BIZ cleanup crews.
Gillingham also called for the city to add at least 200 new locking garbage bins throughout downtown, in addition to the 120 installed last year.
He says people would frequently rifle through unlocked bins, or the wind would lift the lid up and blow garbage around.
Gillingham also promises he will install at least 200 more locking garbage bins around downtown Winnipeg. (Rudy Pawlychyn/CBC)
“It’s much more difficult now. Once the garbage is in, the garbage stays in, unless someone really tries to tamper with it,” Gillingham said.
He also called on the city to speed up the time it takes to replace rolling garbage and recycling bins for residents.
It’s currently taking up to two weeks or longer, Gillingham said. He wants to see bins replaced within one week.
Gillingham said he would release the full cost of his promises, including the cleanup plan, later in the campaign.
Promise to end expense targets for emergency services
Another mayoral candidate said he would end a city practice of imposing annual savings targets on emergency services.
The city set expense management targets of $7 million for the Winnipeg Police Service and $3 million for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service in the 2024-2027 multi-year budget.
Don Woodstock called the savings targets “artificial deficits” in a news release Thursday.
Leaders from the WPS and WFPS have consistently said meeting those targets would require taking front-line staff off the streets, and council has allowed those departments to overspend their targets.
The police service only achieved the target once, in 2024, due to unexpected savings on rent and staffing costs, and increased revenue from criminal record checks and special-duty policing. The city’s second-quarter financial update for 2026 says the WPS expects a $4.5-million shortfall due to only partially meeting its savings target.
The WFPS has never met the target, and the city is predicting a $7.4-million departmental deficit this year due to overtime costs to maintain staffing levels.
Woodstock also wants to stop charging the police and fire paramedic services rent and fund building costs directly, similar to other city facilities such as libraries.
He also promised to end third-party leases on city-owned surface parking lots and return them to direct municipal control.
Woodstock said he would pay for these promises through savings in other departments.