Winnipeg mayoral candidate Don Woodstock focuses on transit, housing

Don Woodstock, welcome back to CBC. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here again. So let's get started with your housing plan. If you become mayor, what would you do to put more people in homes? We have 600-plus boarded-up homes right now that's used in the neighbourhood for drug dens and prostitution and hub for illegal activities. 30 days' notice will be given to every single one of them, and I'm going to give them three plans to pick from. Choose which plans you like to build on those homes. And if you're not able to build in those homes, I am bulldozing those homes 30 days later. Okay, you can take me to court. I know I'll win that court case because they're a nuisance to the community and they're a hazard to the community. So I'm going to interject. Where are those homes? Like, where's that data coming from, the 600? And how have you verified what's going on in this property? That is homes that is boarded up in a core neighborhood, abandoned buildings, abandoned homes. That status has been out, it's been generated through the free press, did a long story on it. And I think your station also did a story. Okay, so you're quoting some of the media research that's been done around some of this. 600 plus homes. And so that is how I would get, because if you have more housing into the stock, then you'll get more. For building, the permits, I would free up the red tape for building. Because we need more housing stock. More housing stock, as a business person, I know that more housing stock means that your rent is going to be cheaper and we'll have more affordable homes. And also, I'm also going to look at the addiction issues that has plagued our community and it's a humanitarian crisis. The Marlborough Hotel has been empty now for three years. And so for me, I would retrofit abandoned buildings as much as I can and work with the community to try and get these people into homes. because it is more humane to put people in a home and provide wraparound services for them than leave them on the street. Which is somewhat still what the city plan is now. It's the Your Way Home. It's a strategy from the province. And the city has only so... I like how you say no. Pardon me? I like how you say no. Four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, nobody was doing this. It's changed, yes. Yes, and all of a sudden they changed. However, it's provincial jurisdiction. So the city's role often comes in with encampments. What are your thoughts on people who are living right now homeless in the street? Just imagine I am mayor tomorrow morning, October 30th, and I get a call from King Charles that says, I'm visiting Winnipeg on the 30th of November. Do you think, Marcy, anybody would be on our street homeless? The answer is no. They'll all be gone. Nobody will be in our bus shelters. Nobody will be shacking up. There'll be no encampment anywhere. Where are those people living? That's the point. so we will get them off the street because again it's more humane to put people in a home and provide services for them triage them than leave them on the street it is actually it's a saving as well as a humanitarian effort crisis and it's it's treating people with dignity and giving them the service that they need because to for us to open drug sites versus open recovery sites i'm going to close every drug site sorry mr mayor mr premier i'm going to close every drug site and i'm going to open a recovery site i want to have more recovery sites so no more supervised consumption sites zero and uh more treatment recovery sites absolutely is what your ideology absolutely so let's move to transit oh another yeah you're a former transit driver transit and the front runner in this race when it comes to transit because unless you sit in the in the chair for 10 years you have no idea when you're talking about transit so what's your idea to improve transit for the users and for those on the bus oh my god transit safety number one transit safety plainclothes officers on the bus making sure that we return back the routes where it's supposed to have been also making sure we put by the bus stops where they're supposed to be so seniors don't have to walk a block or two in the cold this is a very cold city you're not a fan of the new plan oh my god there are some aspects of the new plan work but to take the bus out of Graham Avenue only a driver would understand the importance of having the bus run back through Graham Avenue Graham Avenue will be open immediately that I'm elected um how are you going to pay for your ideas without raising property taxes oh that's one of the the biggest thing that we have put out forward every year the city of winnipeg take 25 of its capital budget and put into outside source consultant even though we have 250 engineers qualified engineers by the way okay they still put 25 out in capital project on the water treatment plant alone that's 800 million dollars so what am i going to do i'm bringing everything in house so that 800 million that would be going to the to outside sources no longer going to us i am going to employ more people if i have to maybe 50 more engineers but we're gonna save that money also we are we as an avid recycler as the person who had brought your reusable bags and the person who had brought you the blue bins in your back lane and the person who had gotten your first electric bus built in the city that's all on me that's what i've done what i'm going to do is get into the business of recycling of aggregate, the road work that we cut up. So right now, this city right now, spec it as new construction to come in, new gravel. I'm gonna change that and I'm gonna use what we currently have because it's industry standard. And is it safe to reuse all of those materials? Industry standard across the world. Even if they're being recycled? Not something new. And not happening here. But it's not happening here because we give it away And we could save anywhere between $40 to $50 million. In fact, somebody told me this week, Don't think about $60 to $70 million. So if I'm saving on bringing in our outside 25%, $800 million, and the water treatment plant alone, I'm saving on your road work. Why do I need to raise your tax? I just need to let you keep paying what you're paying. And by the way, I'm going to cut your water bill in half. How? Why in half? And how in half? We made $79 million last year surplus. You know what surplus means? To a business person, that is extra money. So you pay your bill and you have the extra, which is $79 million. There are people who are losing their home because of these draconian measures that they put on water. It is a shame what we have done to seniors. It's a shame what we have done for the hardworking men and women. So why do I need to penalize them anymore? I need to manage what we got and as a business owner I know that because you cannot run a business the way how these guys operate and stay afloat and you know my business is we've been doing well on the security aspect you um you're running against 11 other candidates on Woodstock who has never done anything for the city you've also run in three provincial campaigns a federal campaign yeah you have not yet been successful so this is your seventh time running yes um why Why do you want to hold office at some level? Why do you keep going for it? So, you know, this time is different. I have a full-fledged research team. Look at all my policies, okay? If you go to my website and look at, compare my website with everybody else's website, and you'll know that there's a lot of work goes into the planning of whatever we're doing this time around. This time around, I have consultants coming in from former and current workers of this city and province, helping us. People who I never thought would have jumped into this race is helping us in the back end. And I'm going to tell you, I am so happy that we have contacted and communicated with more than 150,000 Winnipeggers in the last year. most people don't know and listen on the subject of the environment who would you trust somebody who have given you the blue bins somebody who have given you recycling as you've explained some of your records you know who would you who who would be classified as a front runner somebody who have done something or somebody who has never and transit who would be classified as a front runner somebody who has never driven stock that's our time oh my god good luck on the 28th thank you