'Build a stronger city': What Scott Gillingham has planned for his time as mayor of Winnipeg

Scott Gillingham was elected as Winnipeg’s next mayor in the 2022 municipal election on Wednesday, beating 10 other candidates in a race that came down to the wire.

“It’s really, really exciting, and I look forward to getting to work as soon as possible,” Gillingham said in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Thursday.

Gillingham won with 27.5 per cent of the vote, edging out his closest opponent Glen Murray by about 4,000 votes.

The mayor-elect noted that the race was close, and that Winnipeggers had a lot of choices with a lot of good policies put forward.

“I appreciate my team, my campaign team. I think we put a really good policy together,” he said.

“But it’s more important that I tried to cast a vision for the city of Winnipeg and for the future to build a stronger Winnipeg, and I think Winnipeggers responded to that.”

Gillingham said the theme of his campaign was about uniting to build a stronger city, and it’s now time to put his plan into action.

He added that going forward he is committed to collaboration.

“I’ll work with all 15 councillors to build a strategic plan for the city, so that we can start talking about the next steps and the next four years for the City of Winnipeg,” he said.

Gillingham served as city councillor for two terms beginning in 2014, spending time on the finance committee.

To address the city’s current financial situation, Gillingham said one of the first things he is going to do is see where the city is at and whether it has started to recover financially from the pandemic.

He said he also put forward a plan for the city that included raising taxes.

“I was very clear about that. I was very honest with voters to say it’s time to raise revenue for the City of Winnipeg,” he said, “We’ll continue to control costs, but it’s time to raise revenue, so that will be the next step, we look at the 2023 budget.”

Gillingham’s property tax increase comes at a time when many Winnipeggers are struggling financially due to inflation and rising costs.

The mayor-elect justified this choice by saying that most Winnipeggers will still pay less in property taxes over the next couple of years because the province has reduced the education tax.

As for crime, homelessness and addiction, Gillingham said these are some of the top issues in Winnipeg.

He said his platform focuses on crime prevention to make the entire city safer.

“We’ll build modular housing so that people who are struggling with homelessness right now can get off the street, into housing, and then provide the services that support them if they’re struggling with addiction or mental health,” Gillingham said.

Gillingham will be the city’s 44th mayor, taking over the city reins from Brian Bowman. He will officially be sworn in on Nov. 1.

The mayor-elect said he wants to thank Winnipeggers for this opportunity to serve the city’s residents.

“I will make every effort over these next months and years to serve the people of Winnipeg, to pull us together so we can build a stronger city,” he said.

- With files from CTV’s Nicole Dube and Rachel Lagace.