'We need to clean this up': Winnipeg to look into ramping up graffiti removal

One Winnipeg city councillor wants the city to ramp up its graffiti removal process.

Coun. Russ Wyatt submitted a motion for the city to increase its graffiti removal efforts immediately. It also asks the city to reach out to BIZ zones to offer help and coordinate removal efforts.

“I’m not talking about graffiti art here. I’m talking about random graffiti, some of it is gang related in terms of markings on walls and so forth. We need to clean this up ASAP,” he said in an interview on Monday.

The motion says that graffiti sends a message that a community is “unsafe and lawless.” It notes that graffiti is once again becoming an issue in the city, including in the inner city and downtown areas, which could cause people to think Winnipeg is “dirty” or “unsafe.”

The motion goes on to say there will be a lot of visitors coming to Winnipeg soon because it’s summer and because the Police and Fire World Games are coming up, and graffiti sends a “terrible message.”

“We have visitors coming to Winnipeg at this time of year, these are our nice summer months, we want the city looking better where we can make it look better within existing budgets that we have,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt added that the Biz zones do a great job of cleaning up graffiti, but some parts of the city are still being missed.

The motion calls for the public works committee to get an update on the success of the graffiti cleanup at its September meeting.

- With files from CTV’s Jeff Keele.