WINNIPEG -- If you have a problem with any City of Winnipeg services – you call 3-1-1. However some Winnipeggers are saying 3-1-1 doesn't always work the way it should. One councillor is hoping to change that.
Like many Winnipeggers, Rick Baril has had to call 3-1-1 to report a problem with city services.
"(There was) road work done right in front of the house and they tore up part of the lawn and the sidewalk and it was never replaced,” Rick Baril said. “So I called them up and they opened a ticket for it."
Eventually concrete was poured where the sidewalk was supposed to be, but Baril said one year later, the city came and tore it all out again.
“It's still not resolved,” Baril said, adding his actual experience dealing with 3-1-1 went well, but he would have appreciated a follow up email from them.
These are the types of situations Councillor Janice Lukes (Waverley West) hopes to improve. She said 3-1-1 sets the tone for how citizens perceive the city's ability to deliver services. Lukes said she gets many calls from constituents frustrated with the service.
"For example a resident may call in, get a service number. They want to follow up and see where it's at in the queue – it says case closed. They make another request for service and get another service number. It's kind of a vicious circle,” Lukes said.
On Tuesday, she put forward a motion at the executive policy committee meeting to change how 3-1-1 operates and communicates with Winnipeggers. She said the service should be delivering and performing at a different standard than it is.
EPC passed a motion to direct the Winnipeg Public Service to report on all operational improvements made in the last four years, as well as those currently in progress, and ones identified for future consideration.
This report will also look at current staffing levels, required staffing levels, and the rate of turnover within the past four years.
The report is scheduled to be completed within 90 days.
