By Marianne Cerilli
Winnipeg’s municipal elections are October 28; it is time to start reviewing what candidates for mayor and council are selling. So far, they are addressing symptoms of problems, not Winnipeg’s fundamental challenges in key municipal areas.
First planning problems. The story of Winnipeg is told in comparing our city footprint and our population since Unicity in 1971. Our prairie river city has grown 86% in serviced land area and only 58% in population. This means there are relatively fewer citizens to pay for more urban infrastructure. Reading our planning documents, one would wonder how this could happen, because Winnipeg has good planning policy, which is the unique key responsibility of a city.
But that policy is routinely ignored in budget and development decisions. Instead, City Council, or EPC and the administration, keep designing a city for car reliance that does not have a high return in taxes per acre. New metrics are required to measure land use to tax ratio, as there seems to be a lack of appreciation of the connection between urban planning and why the city is raising taxes, yet cutting services, is still short on revenue, and draining reserves funds.
The pressure from ex-urban sprawl is also a problem that requires new structures and approaches. In 1981 the population of Winnipeg compared to the surrounding municipalities was 564,000 to 68,000. Now in 2026 there are about 810,000 Winnipeggers and 170,000 residents in surrounding municipalities. Winnipeg has grown by about 43%, the surrounding municipalities have grown by roughly 150%. An increase from about 20,000 daily commuters in 1981 to closer to 75,000 in 2026, that live within an hour or so drive. They rely on Winnipeg infrastructure, but pay nothing here, and have lower “rural municipal” taxes.
Symbolically the agency to address this challenge now refers to the municipal region not the capital region and the structure allow each RM a voting rep, while Winnipeg with a much larger population also gets only one rep. No wonder the interests of Winnipeg are not being addressed. The provincial government seems to have given up on regional planning, allowed RMs to opt out, most have gone rogue. As an MLA in east Winnipeg next to the RM Springfield, I saw how important urban planning and zoning is to avoid land use conflicts between residential, recreation, commercial, and industrial land uses, including between municipalities.
Our second big problem is Council’s approach to economic development that still focuses on low taxes and deals attract investment as “growth”, shifting the tax burden to residential property owners while disadvantaging local businesses. This economic development model does not factor in green infrastructure like trees and green space, or plan for long term sustainability and just transition. This traditional economics does not ensure training and wages are part of the strategy to reduce poverty through economic opportunity not just social programs or charity. In short rather than creating an integrated, diversified local economy, using local labour and local supply chains, Winnipeg’s economy is like a leaky bucket, or leaky sewer drain, with money leaving our city, especially the downtown and inner city.
Thirdly, Winnipeg has a governance culture with structures and procedures that are not as democratic as we need to make the changes necessary to address inequity, poverty and environment problems. Many Winnipeggers are familiar with the authoritarian strong mayor model, where the mayor chooses the councillors for Executive Policy Committee. EPC operates like a city cabinet with one councillor responsible for each of the standing committees, but with no opposition.
Inevitably, EPC councillors become beholden to the wishes and will of the mayor or they are removed from EPC.
Also contributing to the democratic governance deficit are large municipal wards which hinder effective grassroots representation, especially in the older neighbourhoods. Plus, the City of Winnipeg has notoriously weak due process and public engagement, with last minute and short timelines for public input, especially on the budget, and development proposals. Winnipeg has no structures for collaborative work between stakeholders on policy or urban development. Although, community engagement on policy development is better, unlike other cities our policy does not guide the budget, is often ignored and not funded.
Finally, the autocratic governance plays out in the abusive approach to citizens who are actively engaged in creating a healthy city. Delegations presenting to committees or council, democratic demonstrators, or citizens trying to access public information, are routinely met with hostility. Last term’s governance review has not addressed these challenges.
So, this election, ask candidates about their platform ideas on urban planning and land use as it relates to taxation, housing, greenspace, and funding for services. Ask candidates to explain their approach to economic development, to address inequity and climate change, plus how they would remedy Winnipeg’s democracy deficit as these are the way we get at improving other issues from transit to trees, inner city decline and poverty to safety and addictions. Visit anatomyofapothole.ca for more.
Marianne Cerilli is an educator, and former MLA working in community development and social innovation. Listen to Marion on CKUW radio, or check out her website at Mariannecerilli.ca.