Construction manager enters race to fill Winnipeg city council seat

Concerns about neighbourhood crime and aging infrastructure are among the top priorities for a self-described "blue-collar" candidate running in the Elmwood-East Kildonan byelection.

Abel Gutierrez, 42, officially registered his candidacy this week, joining the growing list of candidates in the byelection prompted by the death of Coun. Jason Schreyer earlier this year.

Gutierrez is a project manager for a Winnipeg construction company and vice president of the East Side Eagles Football Club, where he has volunteered since 2014. 

"Looking at it from a grassroots perspective, I'm the guy from the neighbourhood — a construction worker, blue-collar guy who's kind of worked his way up into the office — and I want to give back to the community that's given me so many opportunities," Gutierrez said in an interview Wednesday.

Gutierrez was born in Mexico and moved to Winnipeg with his family at three years old. He lived with his mother in Manitoba Housing, and grew up in the Elmwood-East Kildonan area during the 1990s, when he says he witnessed a lot of crime and gang activity in the neighbourhood.

Now he's seeing a similar trend, which he says is linked to a lack of supports for young people.

"There's been a spike in petty crime in our area. People just going into people's backyards and taking electrical wire, or anything metal … and I'd like to do my part to stop that, if at all possible."

He wants to see reinvestment in community centres, particularly Chalmers Community Centre, which he said hasn't seen significant upgrades "in quite some time."

Fixing the Louise Bridge is another top priority for Gutierrez. The city shut the bridge down to vehicle traffic in May and it was supposed to reopen at the end of this month, but that reopening has been pushed back to September.

The bridge is more than 100 years old and is slated to undergo major repairs in 2028, which will extend its life for another three decades.

"We would just be looking to get that project addressed as quickly, in as timely a fashion as possible, so that we can get it reopened and get that artery opened back up for the constituents," Gutierrez said.

The other registered candidates in the by-election are Canadian Union of Public Employees vice-president Carmen Prefontaine, urban forest and housing advocate Emma Durand-Wood, and Zekaria Selahadin, a child-care assistant.

The Elmwood–East Kildonan byelection is scheduled for Oct. 25 — a date Gutierrez noted is also his birthday.