It’s been another busy month out in the Elmwood-East Kildonan community, as well as at City Hall.
My executive assistant, Charity, and I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time meeting with the City’s Indigenous Relations Division, to better understand their goals and their challenges. We jumped at the chance to join Glenelm School’s 3rd annual Wahkohtowin Day, which invites students and community members to participate in a day-long celebration of land-based learning experiences. Wahkohtowin is a Cree word that means “kinship” and honours the connection of all living things. It was also a great experience to attend River East Transcona School Division’s Community Powwow, which honours and celebrates Indigenous graduates.
Traffic-related concerns make up a large amount of the communication we receive at our office. This month we met with several schools who are having trouble with traffic volumes and crosswalk safety. Whether road safety concerns are related to the ongoing construction at Watt & Nairn, or long-standing trouble spots around schools, in back lanes, or with street racing, we are doing our best to take action where we can and advocate for the City to adopt faster responses to traffic and road safety issues, that better meet our community’s needs. This is a tall order, but I am committed to working towards better outcomes for the good of all Elmwood-East Kildonan residents and all Winnipeggers.
Here at City Hall, we also spent time learning about the City’s current initiatives to deal with vacant and derelict properties, through the newly-adopted Vacancy to Vitality Strategy. This includes some stronger measures to deal with problem properties, such as:
- Optimizing the city’s use of the “taking title without compensation” process
- Reducing the tax sale eligibility period from 3 to 2 years
- Creating escalating empty building fees
- Making it easier for property owners to turn their title over to the city (this would allow the city to acquire properties that are strategically viable – meaning those that can be remediated, redeveloped or transferred for affordable housing purposes).
While there are no quick or easy answers, we are making progress and these new tools will help over time. Please continue to report issues you see with vacant properties to 311 (or to our office) so that By-law enforcement can be alerted.