Winnipeg mayoral candidate Mazher Alam promises reduced utility bills, taxes

Mr. Alam joins us now. Welcome to CBC. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Thank you. So what was it about this water bill that you got that motivated you to run for mayor? Yeah, actually there was a lot of water bill hikes, you know. I got about $1,100 bill from 400 jumps to the $1,100. Some of my friends told me that they got 2,000 water bill. So mostly they paid $500, $600, but suddenly it becomes $2,000. It's too much, you know. Yeah. So a lot of people might have said that's too much money and just talked about it among their friends. Yeah. But you decided you run for mayor. Well, actually, I started a petition at that time when I got these bills. So I got thousands of votes. Actually, my reverse water bill hike and reverse property tax hikes, It was a very famous and viral petition in the Winnipeg. So I got thousands of votes that encouraged me to participate in this election so that we can bring our voices on the ballot paper, you know, ballot paper. So tell me about that promise to reduce the utility bills and lower property taxes as well you've promised. How would you do that? Actually, you know, there is a lot of bills. In 2025, so they have a surplus in the water bill. it was 70 million dollars plus only surplus it was not actual amount of the water bill so it is only in 2025 but in 2026 there is there are no figures yet so we have a lot of money you know we have a massive budget of the city of government city government it's 1.34 billion dollars so if you we manage this budget we can line to line audit this budget we can save a lot of money millions of dollars that that we can give the to the people and we can reverse water bill and just freeze property taxes. Why do you presume that the current administration hasn't already done that like looked for that money? Which money? The money that you're saying that is there you know that if you were to audit everything there's money there that we could find. Why do you think they wouldn't have already done that? No I don't think so they do not done it because also there is a $30 million dividend. They just take from the water bills and then add in the other budget. This is unfair because it's a water bill. You know water bill, water and sewer bill is our human rights. So according to the international UN Human Rights Body, Human Rights Commission, if your bill is over than 3%, it is a human rights violation. You have said you'd find additional sources of revenue as well for the city. Like what? Actually, if we can make investment in the city, we can advertise for the investors from other parts of the province. If we give them incentive for the tax credit, and in many and we also assure them that there will be a good law and order situation in the Winnipeg so many investors can come and invest here so there is another thing there is a red tape on the businesses if someone want to open their business he has lot of permits and it takes two years three years to manage to to these permits so i will cut this red tape and invite the investors please come and invest in the city um you have also said that road repairs and fixing potholes are some of your key priorities what would you what would you do to cover that promise yeah actually as already said that there is a lot of budget in the city government if we just audit we can save billion millions of dollars from that budget so if we done a line-to-line audit of the budget and money from the city government we can save a lot of money that money can be spent on the potholes repairing and the construction of new roads uh you've been a social worker uh for years uh we know that people are struggling with addiction it's come up a lot in the city right now of course if you were to become mayor how would you help people actually I have a plan to make another department with the NGOs, with the health, some other people who will cooperate with us. And we will treat these people in a special facility. We will build a facility for them, the addict people and the homeless people. We also provide them shelter and food, everything. But after when they are fully healthy, then we will give them the chance to open their business or can have a job. We will do something to create some jobs for them, these peoples. So have some type of a facility that would have services that would help people who would wish to go there. What about people who are still on the street? Are you somebody that would support a sanctioned encampment, for example? Yeah, yeah, but actually we need some more staff for these people, so who will go there to communicate with these people who are in the streets, so they will tell them the reality, they will tell them the better life in future. So we should have engaged more NGOs who will work this and go to these people to bring them to the facilities for their treatment here. Transit has gone through big changes. You've actually said you will restore the transit system. Would you go back to the old system or what would you do? Actually my plan is we want to restore the old system because many people told me that they are suffering too much because in the winter they have to walk 20 minutes further even the old, you know old people some people cannot walk they have crawler and these things so I have a plan to just restore old system and we have also plan to the new transit system rapid transit system in the city you want to you want police reform as well why do you think we need police reform how would you change it actually we have you know very worst condition in the city just I read a statement from in the news that that the Winnipeg is the least safe city in the Canada so there should be police reforms we should consult with other cities like Toronto and Vancouver how they tackle the crimes so what they do so we have some sort of refresher courses for the police or we'll increase the police budget and some more police staff just last there's 11 other people that are running from here as you know why should people vote for you actually i have as i already mentioned that i am affordability candidate and i just started petition for reversing water bill hike property tax hike and i am the only candidates out of 12 who promised to reverse water bill hike until the 2024 level nobody is promising because it's too much bill if the you know from 400 to 1100 500 to 2000 is too much people cannot pay Master Alam good luck October 28 thanks again you are welcome thank you