City cleanup and cleaning up the budget are what a pair of mayoral candidates are discussing on the campaign trail Thursday. Scott Gillingham released a number of ideas for how he plans to make Winnipeg cleaner if he were to be re-elected mayor. He wants to create a sixth Neighbourhood Action Team that would be strictly focused on downtown. There are currently five teams of seven that help with cleanup in the city’s 15 wards. “Neighbourhood Action Teams are about getting back to the basics and fixing the things people see every day,” Gillingham said in a news release. “Adding a sixth team gives downtown a dedicated cleanup crew while allowing the five existing teams to spend more time cycling through neighbourhoods across the rest of Winnipeg.” Gillingham would also plan to expand the number of lockable garbage bins downtown to 200, as well as make it easier for homeowners to replace their black and blue bins by reducing how long they wait for one. “If there’s garbage piling up, we should deal with it quickly. If a homeowner needs a replacement cart, they shouldn’t be waiting weeks. These are simple services, and residents should be able to count on them.” Meanwhile, Don Woodstock wants to lower costs for Winnipeggers by reclaiming parking lots that the city leases out and improve the budgeting process. When dealing with parking lots, Woodstock said if he becomes mayor, he wants to take back parking lots that are leased by third parties when their leases are up. In doing so, he would put those lots back under city control and lower the cost of parking there. “Private operators have been collecting revenue on city-owned land while taxpayers get stuck with the bill whenever the pavement needs fixing. As these leases expire, my administration will take back control of city-owned properties. By managing them directly, we will generate stable revenue for the city while immediately lowering parking fees for downtown workers and families who are tired of being gouged.” Woodstock said in a news release. Woodstock also talked about adjusting how the city does its yearly budgeting, saying the city currently makes “fake deficits” by automatically putting in costs for Winnipeg police and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service. He believes this automatically impacts how emergency services provide staffing, which leads to more overtime pay and burnout among first responders. “They hand the police and fire services a budget with one hand, and then quietly write in a $7 million starting deficit for police and a $3 million starting deficit for fire-paramedics with the other before the year even starts. On top of that, we are burning through over $10 million in overtime for fire-paramedics and nearly $12 million for police because City Hall refuses to fund proper staffing levels. Pushing our first responders to the point of burnout instead of hiring full-time staff makes zero financial sense. As mayor, I will put an end to this dishonest accounting.” Winnipeggers will go to the polls on Oct. 28, and people can start advanced voting on Oct. 5 until Oct. 23.
