Winnipeg’s three leading mayoral candidates offered competing plans to address issues concerning Winnipeggers during a 680 CJOB debate Wednesday, while defending their ability to work with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and the federal government.
Incumbent Scott Gillingham, former provincial politician Kevin Klein and political newcomer Mike Vogiatzakis debated policing, bail reform, crisis response and their prospective relationships with other governments ahead of the Oct. 28 election. The debate was moderated by the News’ Richard Clotuier.
How would the candidates govern?
Gillingham said that despite not agreeing with Kinew on all the issues, the two are able to work together. He pointed to his quarterly meetings with Kinew and his bail reform work on the federal level as examples of his efforts to work on Winnipeg-specific issues.
Kevin Klein said that if elected, his past as a Progressive Conservative member of the provincial legislature and his columns on the Winnipeg Sun would not affect his relationship with the province.
“I have a relationship with Wab Kinew, I know a lot of people would see that as impossible because I was with a certain party, but I believe the action that I took with Sio Silica proved to him my ethics and proved to him that I am somebody he can trust,” Klein said, adding that he believes a letter he sent to the premier prompted the release of the inquiry report into the Winnipeg police headquarters project.
While speaking with 680 CJOB last week, prior to the report’s release, Kinew said that the report would be released earlier than expected to provide voters with information before the election. The premier did not mention Klein during his conversation with the station.
Vogiatzakis told Clotuier that he is new to politics and would take this opportunity as a novice to represent the average, non-governmental person – and their concerns – in his conversations with Manitoba’s leaders.
“Everything we do should be about the people. We need to put the people first. We need to put the next generation first. That’s what’s important,” he said.
“When your son tells you he wants to leave the city because the city is offering nothing for him, we need to sit with Wab Kinew. We need to talk to him, we need to build relationships.”
Looking to the City of Winnipeg council, Vogiatzakis and Klein agreed that changes must be made to the way council committees operate, specifically with the appointment of members.
The former told CJOB he would work to build relationships with the people elected to form Winnipeg’s next city council. As a part of that consensus-based governance model, he said he would eliminate the city’s equivalent to a cabinet: the executive policy committee.
“There should be no secret group between the mayor and certain people. It should be every councillor’s voice,” Vogiatzakis said.
Klein agreed that all councillors should be heard on the issues and said that he would rotate the committee’s cast to ensure all members are heard during their four-year term.
His major committee change regards the budget working committee, which he said he felt left out of during his time on Winnipeg city council. The candidate served as the councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood from 2018 to 2022.
The current mayor said that the executive policy committee serves a role for council, hence the City of Winnipeg Charter Act mandates that one be in place.
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“It’s about the mayor using their ability to work with others and the power of persuasion. You’re not going to get unanimous consent all the time,” he said.
How would they increase public safety?
Klein said he will address crime and community safety by establishing a taskforce of professionals to determine what the city needs to be safer.
If elected, he said he would fill some of the gaps in policing roles by hiring 100 officers and allowing cadets additional rights to free up police that stay with their suspects while they seek emergency care at hospitals.
Vogiatzakis told CJOB that he would toughen the consequences of committing crimes and work to end the “catch and release system,” meaning he would ensure criminals are arrested and stay in custody longer.
“Enough of allowing people to break into houses, enough of all this garbage that’s going on in the city. We are going to lose more people. We are going to have more people killed. There’s going to be more homes broken into, unless we get tough on crime,” he said.
“Stop with the garbage. Stop with the catch and release program. Work with the government to change the way that things are happening in the city.”
He added that he will also work with police and the higher levels of government to better the justice system, which would include a meeting with the chief of the Winnipeg Police Service within his first 30 days in office.
The incumbent candidate pointed to the declining crime rate in the city but said that if residents don’t feel safe, that rate is unimportant. He also referred to his work on federal bail reform, which he claimed would address the catch and release system Vogiatzakis spoke of.
Hiring additional police officers and furthering the work on his fourth crisis response plan, which would see people who are struggling with addictions or mental health be supported by mental health advocates instead of first responders, would also help to improve community safety, he said.
In addition to crime, the could-be mayors discussed addiction and the recently opened safe consumption site in Winnipeg. Klein said the harm reduction station must have 24/7 support, which it currently does not, for it to adequately support people struggling with addiction and help them seek treatment.
He also pushed for the city to establish designated encampment sites.
Gillingham told him the province blocked the city’s last attempt to open a managed encampment. He said the government preferred to spend that cash on transitional housing.
“Mental health, health, detox, long-term recovery, EIA (Economic and Income Assistance), transitional housing. People that are struggling with addiction it’s provincial services that they need,” he continued.
“I would like to see more money go into detox and long-term recovery. That’s what’s needed.”
If elected, Vogiatzakis said he would work to establish a “Winnipeg village” approach.
“Winnipeg village, that’s going to take people off the streets,” he said, explaining that the approach would involve “taking people off the streets, getting them help, giving them a room or a house, a safe place to be.”
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“It’s what Winnipeg needs,” Vogiatzakis said, adding that the mayor should have never approved the safe consumption site.
The three also spoke on Winnipeg’s north end, an area that they acknowledged as being perceived as unsafe by many residents.
Gillingham said that he would work to improve north Winnipeg via a $60 million capital funding project, if re-elected. The second half of the mayor’s next term would see him consulting with residents and property owners in the community to tackle their concerns.
Candidate Klein said under his leadership, the north end would see the city waive the demolition fee for derelict properties. The former MLA also has a plan to improve the economic situation in the north end.
Klein would address the root of the issue by attracting investors to the area, he said. Under his leadership, the city would work with Ottawa to establish an economic zone in the neighbourhood that removes the capital gains tax.
What about transit?
Each candidate was asked when they were last on Winnipeg Transit bus.
Gillingham said the last time he took the bus was Orange Shirt Day, Sept. 30, when he used Winnipeg Transit to reach a ceremony at The Forks.
Reflecting on his decision to transition to a new transit system, the current mayor said the rollout was more difficult than necessary, but it addressed the issues people had with the previous system.
As new issues are identified, such as bus stops being moved from frequently accessed locations, Gillingham said the city has been working to address them.
“There’s more work to do for sure,” he noted.
Vogiatzakis said he takes the bus “quite often,” including to watch the Winnipeg Jets play. He described Winnipeg Transit as being broken.
“I would go back (to the old system) as close as I can and take things to the way they were when people were happy and maybe make some adjustments in between,” he continued.
Klein said he hasn’t taken it lately, as his current role allows him to work from home.
The new transit system, despite its faults, would remain under Klein, who cited the cost for returning to the previous transit plan as his reasoning.
“There are some good changes that were made,” he said. “We have to immediately review many of the stops that were taken out.”
As of Sunday evening, more than 25,000 early ballots were cast, according to a news release shared by the City of Winnipeg on Monday. It said that a single-day advanced voting location record was set last Friday when 1,879 votes were submitted at an advanced voting location in the St. Vital Centre.
is the debate going to be posted elsewhere i would love to listen but i was too busy at the time to be online.