Howard Brazil
What would you do to make transit service in Winnipeg more functional, reliable and safe for its users? What plans do you have, if any, to reduce car dependency in the city?
The transit redesign is one of the biggest concerns I’ve heard while talking to residents.
I’ve heard from seniors, people with disabilities and other riders who are now walking farther, making additional transfers or have lost stops, benches or shelters they depended on.
I want the City to review the changes using actual ridership data, costs and feedback from the people using the system. Where old routes or stops served residents better, I believe we should look at restoring them. I also want better evening and weekend service, improved accessibility and a serious focus on safety for passengers and drivers.
I support active transportation and safer infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, but I don’t believe we reduce car dependency by making driving more difficult. We do it by giving people reliable alternatives they actually want and are able to use.
What do you think the city should be doing to ease the housing and homelessness crisis? What specifically would you change about the city’s current approaches?
We need to treat homelessness as the crisis it is.
In Mynarski, I’m particularly concerned about vacant, boarded and neglected properties. I want an audit of these properties, faster action on dangerous buildings, accountability for chronic neglect and public reporting so residents can see what is being done.
I’m also interested in examining properly managed designated locations for people living in encampments. That could include toilets, garbage removal, basic safety and workers who can connect people with identification, income assistance, housing, healthcare, addiction treatment and recovery.
But the City cannot solve this alone.
Housing, healthcare, mental health and addiction treatment involve major provincial and federal responsibilities. Winnipeg needs the Province of Manitoba and the Government of Canada at the table with substantially more resources.
Public disorder has become a major concern among surveyed voters. How should the city best deal with it? The police budget is a major expense for the city, are people getting value for money?
Residents deserve to feel safe in their neighbourhoods, downtown and on public transit.
I want police resources focused on violent crime, gangs, illegal guns and repeat violent offenders. At the same time, I don’t believe every social problem requires a police officer.
We should examine whether properly trained crisis or community responders could handle appropriate non-violent calls involving mental health, addiction or other situations, while police remain available whenever there is a safety risk.
As for whether we’re getting value from the police budget, I won’t give you an answer without examining the numbers. I want to know what we’re spending, where we’re spending it and what results we’re getting.
That applies to every City department.
Follow the money and measure the results.
While poverty and addictions are largely another government’s responsibility, are there ways that you see that the City of Winnipeg could be doing more to solve these issues?
I’ve been a registered nurse for more than 20 years, including many years working in remote communities. I’ve seen addiction and mental-health crises professionally, and I’ve experienced addiction personally in my own family. I lost my daughter Mandy to addiction.
This issue is very personal to me.
We need more detox, treatment, recovery, mental-health care, prevention and supportive and transitional housing. We also need accountability when laws are broken and people are being victimized.
Compassion and accountability can exist together.
The City can coordinate services, support community organizations, improve neighbourhood safety and advocate for resources. But healthcare and addiction treatment cannot simply be downloaded onto Winnipeg property taxpayers.
The Province of Manitoba and the Government of Canada need to step up. I will advocate strongly for Winnipeg to receive the resources necessary to address this crisis.
Voters are concerned about the rising cost of living and affordability. What do you see are ways the City of Winnipeg could make life less expensive for residents?
Before asking Winnipeg residents to pay more, I want to know where the money they’re already paying is going.
I started Mr. Bones Pizza when I was 20 years old and eventually grew the business to six locations, a commissary and approximately 120 employees.
Running a business taught me that when money is tight, your first response cannot always be to ask your customers for more money. You examine your operation. You look at your expenses. You identify waste and inefficiencies. You decide what your priorities are.
That’s the approach I want to bring to City Hall.
I want to get into the budget and follow the money. Where are taxpayers’ dollars going? What is working? What isn’t? Where can we find efficiencies? What can be redirected toward higher priorities? And what should the provincial and federal governments be paying for instead of Winnipeg property taxpayers?
I’m not going to promise that taxes will never increase without seeing the complete financial picture. I don’t think that would be responsible.
But increasing taxes would not be my first answer.
Residents are paying more. They expect better. They deserve better.
My approach as councillor would be:
LISTEN.
REPORT BACK.
FOLLOW THE MONEY.
BUILD SOLUTIONS.
I grew up in the North End. I’m a homeowner here, a father, a registered nurse of more than 20 years, a former business owner and a Realtor. Those experiences have taught me to listen to people, manage problems, work with budgets and negotiate solutions.
I believe Winnipeg can do better, but the solutions have to be practical, affordable and measurable. Residents should be able to see where their money is going and what they’re getting for it.
Ross Eadie (incumbent)
What would you do to make transit service in Winnipeg more functional, reliable and safe for its users? What plans do you have, if any, to reduce car dependency in the city?
As in Edmonton, Winnipeg’s frequent network will take some years to improve. As the user data builds, there will be some changes to routes, better transfer connections in terms of timing and frequency of feeder routes, infracture improvements to bus stops, and serving outlying areas and better coverage in older parts of the city.
A new Arlington Bridge will make the 28 Arlington bus more efficient not having to be routed through the McPhillips underpass parking lot.
People utilizing electronic motor vehicles is the future of Winnipeg’s assistance to climate change as in a spread out city, motor vehicles are the only option for working families and internal and external trade/business
What do you think the city should be doing to ease the housing and homelessness crisis? What specifically would you change about the city’s current approaches?
To avoid property taxpayers having to pay more, the city offers tax incremental financing to affordable housing and creating more homes in Downtown. We do need a managed encampments to housing for people having to live in encampments with shelters being okay for some people with out homes others don’t want the rules.
The city has backed off from the Winnipeg Housing and Rehabilitation Corp. in terms of providing development dollars for creating more affordable housing units, and I would restore their funding back to what it was in 2010. Its too late now, but the Housing Accelator Fund from the feds could have done more for social and private rent geared to income housing units. However, City Council did uitilize $3 million of this Fund to renovate vacant buildings to provide housing. We could take more losses on vacant and derelict housing to make these properties available to not for profits to develop back into viable homes that are affordable. We need revitalization along Main Street in the North End, and I endorse Scott Gillingham’s plan in this regard.
Public disorder has become a major concern among surveyed voters. How should the city best deal with it? The police budget is a major expense for the city, are people getting value for money?
Yes, the Winnipeg Police Service is the second most expensive department, but we get an immense value for those dollars if one actually looks at the hundreds of thousands of calls for service of which many do not get resolved with customer satisfaction.
We need to follow through on a fourth service for wellness checks and mental health situations to alleviate the police, firfighter/paramedic and paramedic responses as council voted to do on September 24, 2026. The police can do more proactive policing to prevent crimes before crime happens as Chief (Gene) Bowers has pushed his service to do.
While poverty and addictions are largely another government’s responsibility, are there ways that you see that the City of Winnipeg could be doing more to solve these issues?
Thre are two efforts that have been passed by Council to assist those who live in poverty, many working for less than a “living wage” which just went over $20 this year:
In House compost collection is coming to Winnipeg, and in the past good paying union jobs worked for North End families with pensions that allow our seniors to afford living in Winnipeg during their retirement. We can create a policy of reaching out to the poverty areas in Winnipeg to ensure people have the skills to work on collecting the compost.
It is now two years since my motion to utilize a variable rate for waste management fees based on the value of ones home which are lower in the inner city where there are a lot of seniors barely scraping by.
The Government Of Manitoba has been sitting on the request to change the City Of Winnipeg Charter to allow the city to implement this somewhat progressive effort. People can only afford the homes their cash flow can buy. Call on the Province to make the change! It does not cost the province a dime. So, any argument about their deficit is mute
Voters are concerned about the rising cost of living and affordability. What do you see are ways the City of Winnipeg could make life less expensive for residents?
See above … We cannot cut services. If actions to reduce crime takes hold, we may be able to some day lower the number of police officers needed to flatten the police budget which is approximately 86% of their budget for swarn officers and many other support staff.
There is a huge need to increase recreation and leisure programs to assist for our next generation to stay away from the drug and addiction trade. There are so many more people with this addiction struggle than the days I grew up. So, I cannot figure out how the city could cut any services to make it more affordable.
Ayaz Noor Mohammed
What would you do to make transit service in Winnipeg more functional, reliable and safe for its users? What plans do you have, if any, to reduce car dependency in the city?
Reliability matters, but safety for riders and drivers has become a genuine crisis this summer, and it needs to be addressed first. Winnipeg recorded 104 assaults on Transit operators in 2025, and there have already been 42 this year, including a driver stabbed in the leg with a syringe, another bitten while trying to restrain a passenger, a supervisor punched in the face during fare enforcement, and an operator threatened with a hatchet through the gap in her partial safety shield at the St. Vital terminal in August.
That operator is now on leave, one of more than 60 drivers currently off on stress leave according to their union. ATU Local 1505 has been urgently calling for full protective shields, and the Free Press editorial board has publicly criticized the city for moving too slowly on this despite the mounting toll. I agree with that criticism.
Full shields are a modest capital cost relative to what the city already spends, and drivers shouldn’t have to wait for a serious injury before council acts. If elected, I would push to fast-track full shield installation across the fleet rather than treating it as a routine, multi-year capital-planning item.
The city has taken some reactive steps: Winnipeg Police began riding buses and patrolling stops near school routes starting the first week of September as part of a back-to-school transit safety initiative, and Transit has added more Community Safety Officers. That’s reasonable, but it’s seasonal and reactive.
I’d want a standing, year-round transit safety plan paired with the physical shield upgrades, so operators aren’t relying on police response time once an incident is already underway.
On reliability, the September 6 fall schedule brought real improvements: new terminals for routes 678/679 and FX4, an extended Route 48 in Transcona, and an expanded on-request zone in the northeast for evening and weekend service. I support that kind of incremental network improvement and want to see Transit’s proposed battery-electric bus pilot move forward for on-request routes.
On reducing car dependency, the province’s new Youth Ride Free pilot has already reached more than 21,000 students since September 1; I’d want the City to track its long-term ridership impact and make the case to extend it, since building transit habits early is one of the most effective ways to reduce car dependency over time.
What do you think the city should be doing to ease the housing and homelessness crisis? What specifically would you change about the city’s current approaches?
The City announced on September 9 that it has surpassed its Housing Accelerator Fund target, approving 14,833 housing units against a 14,251 goal, nearly three months ahead of the December deadline, securing a final $32.6-million payment from CMHC. That’s real progress, and nearly 8,000 of those units are near high-frequency transit, which is the right pattern.
But approvals aren’t the same as affordability: Winnipeg home prices hit new records in July, averaging $454,264 for detached homes, and the province just announced it’s expanding rent control by raising the rent-exemption threshold to $2,000 starting in 2027. I’d push the City to use its own land more aggressively for non-market housing rather than relying mainly on private-sector incentives, and to closely track the new $100-million-plus trilateral funding announced this month for 821 new homes across Winnipeg and Swan River, 90% of which are meant to be affordable, to make sure wards like Mynarski see their fair share.
On homelessness, there’s real tension right now: the city reports up to 200 people sleeping outside as encampments are cleared, even as the province’s Your Way Home strategy has housed 263 people and Main Street Project says it has independently housed even more.
I’d want the City to stop treating encampment clearing as a stand-alone strategy and instead tie it directly to guaranteed shelter or housing placement first, not clearing followed by displacement.
Public disorder has become a major concern among surveyed voters. How should the city best deal with it? The police budget is a major expense for the city, are people getting value for money?
This is a live financial issue right now: the Winnipeg Police Service is on track to exceed its 2026 budget by roughly $4.5 million, one of the drivers behind the city’s projected operating shortfall (estimated between $18.8 million and $29 million depending on the report), partly because WPS hasn’t met its own internal cost-savings targets. At the same time, WPS has been phasing out officer-based security in malls and retail stores, a shift that raises real questions about where policing resources are actually being deployed.
I don’t think residents are getting clear value for money right now, and I’d push for transparent public reporting that ties police spending to specific, measurable safety outcomes in neighbourhoods like Mynarski, not just budget totals.
I support continued investment in community-based prevention and outreach, paired with targeted enforcement, rather than treating enforcement as the only lever.
While poverty and addictions are largely another government’s responsibility, are there ways that you see that the City of Winnipeg could be doing more to solve these issues?
These remain mainly provincial and federal responsibilities, but the City has tools it isn’t fully using.
Given that Manitoba’s Your Way Home strategy and outreach agencies like Main Street Project are actively competing for the same funding and publicly disagreeing about effectiveness, I think the City should play a stronger coordinating role, using its land and capital budget to support transitional and supportive housing directly, as it’s starting to do downtown, where dozens of residents recently moved into converted transitional housing units.
I’d also want the City to publicly track how encampment responses connect to actual housing placements, since right now there’s a real gap between clearing sites and providing stable alternatives.
Voters are concerned about the rising cost of living and affordability. What do you see are ways the City of Winnipeg could make life less expensive for residents?
Affordability pressure is real and getting worse on some fronts: Winnipeg’s housing affordability monitor shows the mortgage-payment-to-income ratio rose again in the second quarter of 2026, and home prices hit new July records.
On the City’s side, the 2026 budget is already running a shortfall, driven by snow-clearing costs, fuel prices, lower Transit revenue, and the police overrun, with the city drawing down its financial stabilization reserve to cover it.
That matters directly for affordability, because it puts pressure on future property tax and fee increases. I’d push for transparent public reporting on why costs are rising in core services before any new fees are added, and support targeted relief tools, like the province’s expanded rent controls and the new Youth Ride Free transit pilot, that put money back in residents’ pockets without requiring new city debt.
Natalie Smith
What would you do to make transit service in Winnipeg more functional, reliable and safe for its users? What plans do you have, if any, to reduce car dependency in the city?
I’m personally an avid bus rider, as well as a cyclist, and I’m very interested in supporting any efforts to help reduce car dependency in the city.
There are two necessary investments that the city needs to make in order to build up our transit system into one that is reliable and functional for the user.
- The City opted to reduce the size of the new Winnipeg Transit Oak Point Highway Garage, due to higher construction costs. This means that we will not be able to store and maintain the amount of articulated buses required for the transit system we just rolled out. We need to find capital funding to complete the original proposal of this garage in order to reach the goals of the Master Transit Plan.
- The return of the 50/50 operational funding partnership with the provincial government. This was the funding agreement between the province and Manitoba municipalities until 2016 when the Pallister government froze operation funding at that years’ level and it has remained at this level since. I will strongly advocate to the provincial ministers to return this funding to ensure that Winnipeg Transit has the money required for proper service.
I fully believe that we need investment in transit along with active transportation to meet the City’s important goal of mode shift. This goal set out in Winnipeg’s Transportation Master Plan is for 50% of all trips taken in the city not using a single-occupancy vehicle by 2050.
What do you think the city should be doing to ease the housing and homelessness crisis? What specifically would you change about the city’s current approaches?
The city needs to be a stronger partner in the Province’s Your Way Home Strategy by ensuring more funding for frontline support workers. Our houseless neighbours have a deep distrust of systems, and often for very valid reasons.
Our frontline workers are the ones to build relationships and repair trust with the community, ensuring that transition into housing runs smoothly and people are provided the tools and supports needed to remain housed.
There are many solutions that already work in Winnipeg that could be scaled up. One initiative in the Mynarski ward is the pilot program in the William Whyte neighbourhood, where vacant lots are sold to groups like Purpose Construction to build homes for people that can not qualify for a mortgage.
This type of housing stability goes a long way for families and ensures that they build a sense of belonging in the community, and kids don’t get shuffled between schools and rental properties on a regular basis.
Public disorder has become a major concern among surveyed voters. How should the city best deal with it? The police budget is a major expense for the city, are people getting value for money?
No other department would be rewarded with ongoing funding increases for the poor outcomes that our Police Department delivers.
I’ve heard countless stories from residents and business owners that make it clear that safety and crime is an increasingly important issue, while acknowledging that continuing to inflate the police budget seems to make things worse instead of better.
I believe this comes down to three things:
- WPS Chief Bowers said late last month that the Superstore gravy train needs to end. This isn’t a funding issue, it’s the service’s inability to manage its own resources. Before we even consider increasing the WPS police budget in the upcoming budget, let’s see what effect there is on staffing levels after a year of this program ending.
- Police do not prevent crime, they respond to it, and many folks in the service will say as much. We have to invest in programs like the Community Safety Host program already in our libraries, hospitals and other public buildings.
Also important here is that studies show that growing heat waves increase violence so ensuring our city prepares for increasing summer heat is crime prevention. - Policing is the only city service to have received steady increases in funding over the past few decades. Our budget isn’t bottomless – the community services that get cut in order to supplement the police budget have been evidenced to prevent crime. There is evidence that proves that access to programming for marginalized youth decreases the rate of crime. We have seen major cuts to programs for our youth and our community centres that help give youth a place to go to stay out of trouble. We need to invest in our youth and provide programming for adults and seniors. Safety is knowing your neighbours and looking out for one another.
To respond to the specific question of public disorder; there are two things happening here as a result of the ever increasing cost of living.
- People are committing crimes of survival. Whether they are stealing food, breaking into buildings for shelter, or stealing items for resale to earn money. There is a correlation between increasing rates of poverty and increasing rates of crime and property damage. Policing will not end poverty.
- As the average household also struggles more and more to make ends meet, people are becoming more and more isolated because they cannot afford to participate in society. Whether it be concerts, going out for dinner, or festivals – having people on the street, enjoying their city, keeping eyes out for one another, is a safety initiative in and of itself. Our city needs to build its local economy and ensure that money earned in Winnipeg, stays in Winnipeg, and is spent in Winnipeg.
While poverty and addictions are largely another government’s responsibility, are there ways that you see that the City of Winnipeg could be doing more to solve these issues?
Poverty will never be resolved if each level of government doesn’t take their own personal responsibility for it, and move forward in a more collaborative way with the other levels.
Recently, the CCPA released their 2026 Alternative Municipal Budget. It showed that Community Services spending has been cut $37/per taxpayer between 2004 and 2022. This cut led to the loss of nearly 150 full-time equivalent positions. A loss of good paying jobs that people take pride in, along with the budget cuts mean that Winnipegers that rely on these low and no fee community services, such as libraries and recreation programs, are losing access to their communities.
Countless studies have proven that return on investment into community services is very high and reduces the effect of poverty that people experience. Proper access to community programs increase economic equity which increases democratic participation.
Cuts to community programs also affect resident’s health and lead to increases in isolation. Social health outcomes contribute greatly to people’s mental health and poorer mental health can lead people into issues of addiction. Providing people with the things they need to live a good life does cost the city money, but when we don’t provide this funding the costs are significantly higher. Budgets are not just the money we plan to spend today but also the problems we are causing with underfunding today for higher costs in future budgets.
5. Voters are concerned about the rising cost of living and affordability. What do you see are ways the City of Winnipeg could make life less expensive for residents?
The city needs to be more dedicated towards local economic development, particularly in our inner-city wards like Mynarski.
Our neighbourhoods have been hit hard for decades from a lack of investment. These problems were magnified by COVID-19 and the effect on the economy. Our Main Street has seen a substantial increase in vacant buildings and as a result more fires and building loss.
There are very few jobs in our ward for our residents, and little ability to spend money locally. Large parts of the Mynarski ward are considered a food desert, and those without access to a vehicle have to pay additional costs to transport themselves and their groceries from other parts of the city.
We have to do more to retain our current local businesses and also need to encourage more folks to open businesses in our ward to provide the essentials to our residents.
The city has provided some relief for homeowners on their water bills, but these programs are quite limited. Renters face climbing rents and the city needs to work with the Province to build more public and social housing that is truly affordable. More rent geared to income housing is crucially needed.
With our high amounts of vacant, boarded up and burned out buildings in Mynarksi, the ward has a lot of opportunities to re-build much needed affordable housing stock.
Editor’s Note, Oct. 1, 2026: Responses still pending from candidates Laurie Kozak and Terry Wachniak.
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