Inner-city councillor wants encampments banned from Winnipeg playgrounds, splash pads, pools
In final meeting before summer break, council also names new library after a former colleague
The city councillor for Winnipeg's inner-city Daniel McIntyre ward wants to ban encampments in public places where children gather.
Coun. Cindy Gilroy has authored a motion to prohibit encampments at playgrounds, spray pads, community gardens, pools and community centre spaces designed for kids and their families.
Gilroy issued the motion Thursday at the final city council meeting before a six-week summer prorogation at city hall. She had previously pushed for more needle cleanup in city parks and said she has seen some progress as a result, albeit only in a handful places where funding was made available.
Gilroy said she is not trying to push people out of public spaces out of a lack of compassion.
"This is out of frustration of inaction. We have been having major issues around finding needles [and] drug paraphernalia and things that quite simply, if a child gets a hold of it, can easily die from," Gilroy said at city hall during a break in council's July meeting.
Some cities have designated areas where encampments are allowed and "could be monitored more, where they are safer for not only the public, but also the people that are living … within those encampments," she said.
Mayor Scott Gillingham said he will work with Gilroy but is not keen on designated areas for encampments.
"The public is frustrated. I'm frustrated. There's not enough housing units available to move people from encampments into housing with wraparound supports," the mayor said.
"When you've got encampments in playgrounds, it's concerning to residents and it's concerning to councillors."
Gillingham cautioned there are legal impediments to banning encampments.
"There's several layers of this. We know that other cities that have tried to ban certain locations for encampments have been taken to court. So there's legalities that we have to look at as well," he said.
Gilroy's motion will come before her council colleagues in September.
New library named after former councillor
A new library slated for Garden City Shopping Centre will be named after former Old Kildonan councillor Mike O'Shaughnessy, who served on city council for 31 years.
Council voted Thursday to name the new library the Mike O'Shaughnessy Library.
O'Shaughnessy originally sat on council from 1974 to 1980 and then again from 1986 to 2010, serving under mayors Stephen Juba, Robert Steen, Bill Norrie, Susan Thompson, Glen Murray and Sam Katz.
Council also voted Thursday to grant city transportation engineers nine months to plan a separated bike lane on Wellington Crescent, against the wishes of dozens of cyclists who have lobbied city hall for months to install the new lane more quickly.
There have been calls for the bike lane since cyclist Rob Jenner, 61, was killed on Wellington Crescent just east of Academy Road in June 2024 as he was cycling to work. He was hit by a speeding motorist who lost control of his vehicle.
Council also voted Thursday to create a possibility for people opposed to new smart water meters, which transmit usage data, to opt out of their installation, provided they obtain a medical exemption on the basis of exposure to radio waves.
The city's plan to replace 221,000 analog water meters with the new "smart" meters is set to start next year and take five years to complete, at a cost of $135 million.
The new meters are expected to be more accurate — old meters tend to underestimate water usage — and detect leaks more quickly than the analog meters.