Transit peace officers, quarter-century plan for downtown: Mayor Gillingham delivers state of the city address

Promises of a peace officer unit on buses, as well as a quarter-century plan for downtown development highlighted Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham's inaugural state of the city address focussed on homelessness, safety, downtown improvements and economic development.

Gillingham delivered his first State of the City address on Thursday afternoon during the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce's annual State of the City event.

His speech focussed on four main pillars: homelessness, safety, downtown improvements and economic development.

Gillingham said in a few days, the city will release a draft update on its extreme cold weather policy, which he said will include $1 million in new funding for the preliminary 2023 budget to create more 24/7 safe spaces.

He said he was pleased to hear about the province's homelessness strategy which was released earlier this week. He said he is looking forward to hearing more about it and will be looking to develop one single coordinated plan to address homelessness in the city.

He said there is a tough debate across the city about what needs to be done to address safety – some calling for more enforcement and others calling for more social supports to address the root causes.

"The Millennium Library is a great example of that conundrum," he said. "More housing, more help for people with addictions and other interventions will help improve safety.

"But for parents visiting the library with their kids today, or for City of Winnipeg staff who work there every day – well they can't wait months or years for those initiatives to have an impact."

He said the city must do both.

He said later this year, the city will be developing a comprehensive community safety plan to prevent crime rather than just responding to it.

As a part of this, Gillingham said his office will be sending out a working document outlining the plan for a city peace officer unit that will start its work on the transit system.

"Our goal is to hire and train 24 peace officers this year to begin patrolling our buses and our bus stops as soon as possible," he said, adding data shows more than 40 per cent of the assaults and serious assaults take place on the same five routes.

He said the peace officers will start there.

"If it works, and I believe it will, we can expand the program to address other security hotspots like the Millennium Library."

He said another focus will be on creating more momentum for economic development in Downtown Winnipeg. He said in the coming weeks, the city will be releasing more details about 'Centre Plan 2050' – a blueprint for the development of downtown communities over the next quarter-century.