Electric heating, opening up Portage and Main and Winnipeg's urban forest the focus on the campaign trail
Winnipeg is officially one month away from announcing its newest mayor.
As time continues to dwindle down, some of the mayoral hopefuls were on the campaign trail telling Winnipeggers how they would help the city.
Shaun Loney announced Monday his plan to cut heating costs for Winnipeg residents.
Calling it "The Big Switch," Loney said he wants to modernize the water and waste department.
He wants Winnipeg families to be able to switch from natural gas heating to electric pump heating by 2030, saying it would save money on energy bills and reduce carbon footprints.
"City Hall has been acting on the wrong assumption that switching to heat pumps is a financial burden," Loney said in a news release. "The opposite is true. We just need some vision and new financing tools to reduce or eliminate upfront costs like we already do with water and natural gas service."
His plan would allow at least 40,000 families and businesses to switch to the electric pumps.
The water and waste department would be renamed Winnipeg Water, Waste and Heat, and the department would install loops for geothermal heat pumps underground and then charge a monthly fee to access the loops.
"A modest monthly fee will be applied to recover installation costs over time. This will feel very similar to how Manitoba Hydro's Centra Gas subsidiary handles the cost of natural gas service right now. This will give Winnipeggers an enticing new option to cut both their heating bills and carbon footprint."
He said businesses could also finance having the pumps installed through property tax bills.
Rana Bokhari also released details on one of her campaign promises.
She said if elected mayor, she would open up the barriers at Portage and Main to make the intersection accessible to everyone.
"The barriers are already coming down," she said in a news release. "According to engineering reports, the barriers are in the way of major repairs needed to the underground concourse. Once they are down, they will not go back up."
She said the only major argument for having the barriers come down was it meant traffic would slow down in the area.
"Placing people in vehicles above all other types of commuters should not be the reason we keep the intersection closed. People should be able to travel through our famous intersection whether they walk, bus, bike or drive."
She believes it would provide more access to those Winnipeggers living with disabilities and also bring more people back to the area, which would help support local businesses.
Winnipeg mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk makes an announcement about Winnipeg's urban forest on Sept. 26, 2022 (image source: Glenn Pismenny/CTV News Winnipeg)
Lastly, Jenny Motkaluk had her focus on protecting and enhancing Winnipeg's urban forest.
"We have 300,000 municipal trees that form our urban forest, and give shade and beauty and life to our ecosystem. It protects us from heat and removes pollution, stabilizes groundwater runoff, and our urban forest is one of the things that we celebrate. But City Hall hasn't given our urban forest the love it needs," Motkaluk said in a news release Monday.
She said the budget for the forestry department was cut by 36 per cent and that the city isn't keeping up with replacing trees that have come down, adding there are 14,500 trees that need to be replaced.
"As Mayor of Winnipeg, I will put our money where our mouth is and protect and maintain our urban forest."
She said she is committed to planting two trees for every tree that comes down in the city, which she says will be about 11,000 trees a year.
Motkaluk added this would be funded through revenue from new infrastructure projects, management practices and savings and by attracting growth and investment in Winnipeg.
She noted she wouldn't raise taxes for Winnipeggers.
"My plan to properly fund achievable goals to plant trees and trim them regularly will keep our city greener, happier and healthier for decades to come."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.