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 2025 network overhaul failed too many people. Seniors are walking farther in winter, nurses finishing late shifts are stranded, and some neighbourhoods simply lost service. I was the only member of council who voted against that overhaul.

My Bring the Bus Back plan will:

• Direct Winnipeg Transit, within 120 days of taking office, to review every stop removed in 2025, prioritizing hospitals, clinics, seniors’ residences, care homes, schools, and the neighbourhoods that lost the most service. The first 150 highest-need stops will be restored by fall 2027.
• Guarantee a bus stop at or near the front door of every acute-care hospital (HSC, St. Boniface, Grace, Victoria, Seven Oaks, Concordia), seven days a week.
• Extend late-night and early-morning service on routes serving hospitals and shift workers, using buses already sitting idle off-peak rather than buying new vehicles.
• Publish a quarterly public scorecard so residents can track every restored stop and added hour.

On safety, I will install full protective shields across the fleet within two years (starting with a pilot) and put panic buttons on every bus that connect directly to police dispatch. Partial shields have not stopped the assaults on drivers. Safer, more reliable transit is the practical way to reduce car dependency for people who want or need an alternative. When the system is usable and safe, more people will choose it.

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?

Moving tents from park to park is not a solution. Within 30 days I will create a Mayor’s Office of Community Safety and Housing Outcomes so the public can see results, not just process. I will also establish a time-limited, professionally managed 24/7 space (location to be determined with community input) that provides on-site support, help with identification, and a bridge into housing and treatment—not a permanent tent city. This is cheaper than the current cycle of emergency responses.

On vacant and derelict homes, which are fire traps and crime hubs, I will set clear timelines: owners must file an action plan within six months of vacancy and repair, renovate, or remove the structure by the one-year mark. Demolition approvals will be completed within 15 days. Demolition fees will be waived if the owner rebuilds affordable housing on the site. Empty-building fees will double after two years and triple after three years, with unpaid amounts added to the tax bill.

The city will also push the province for faster seizure tools; we have started processes on dozens of properties and taken title on none. Every vacant building becomes a file that must be closed—repaired, reoccupied, rebuilt, or taken down.

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?

Disorder is driven by open drug use, dealing, and the lack of visible presence. My four-year public safety plan will make Winnipeg the safest city in Canada by measurable outcomes. A crime-reduction task force led by former Chief Devon Clunis, working with police, community leaders, and businesses, will set the metrics and the strategy. I will hire 100 to 110 additional officers so we reach at least the national average staffing level. There will be no more no-go zones, no more open drug use on streets, buses, or in parks, and no more dealing in neighbourhoods.

Residents are not getting full value today because the service is understaffed relative to need and response times suffer. Adding officers, focusing enforcement, and pairing it with the managed pathways for people who need treatment is how we improve outcomes and restore confidence that the money is producing safer streets.

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?

Yes. The city cannot run the health system, but it can stop the revolving door of emergency calls and create practical bridges. The managed 24/7community space is one tool. I will also deploy nine advanced-care paramedic units over three years (paramedic + mental-health clinician in SUVs) modelled on Ottawa’s successful approach. These teams handle wellness checks and low-acuity calls so fire trucks and ambulances are free for true emergencies. That reduces cost, improves response times, and gets people the right help faster.

I will also press the province to expand the drug treatment court so more people whose offences are driven by addiction can be diverted into treatment rather than the traditional system. Public safety and recovery work together; neither succeeds alone.

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?

Families are paying more in property taxes, new waste fees, and water and sewer rates while feeling they get less. I will freeze water and sewer rates at 2026 levels ($1,624 for the average household) for the next two years and put future rate-setting under the Public Utilities Board, the same independent oversight used by other Manitoba communities. City Hall will stop using the utility as an ATM by ending the annual transfer of tens of millions from water and sewer revenues into general revenue.

I will restore an independent City Ombudsman to investigate complaints, protect whistleblowers, and publicly report on project cost overruns—funded by eliminating vacant positions such as the chief construction officer and reallocating existing consultant budgets, not new taxes. Every major new program over $5 million will require a public cost, funding source, and a kill-date if targets are missed. These steps reduce the pressure on household budgets while improving accountability.

Better days are ahead for Winnipeg with change that makes sense.