Winnipeg mayoral candidate Noah Redden prioritizes transit funding, addiction supports

Noah Redden, welcome to CBC. Thanks for having me. So what made you decide to run for mayor? Well, I really wanted to get a little more involved in municipal politics this year. I mean, it's known for a while that younger people don't get out and vote as often. So I was really hoping to, you know, be a little bit more involved for the things I care about, like public transit, better care for people suffering from addictions and homelessness. And my original plan was I did want to, you know, volunteer for a candidate that I really liked. And, you know, when May came around, when a lot of candidates registered, a lot of the candidates, you know, they had their platform, but none of them really resonated with me as much as I would like. So I decided I, you know, I took a look at the rules for what it takes to run for mayor. And I realized that even though it would be a lot of work, that it was perfectly doable and within my power to do. So I decided that I would just be that change I wanted to see in Winnipeg. So tell me a little bit about your traffic plans, starting with transit. What is wrong, in your view, with the current transit system? And I guess most importantly for people to hear, what would you do about it? Well, I think the biggest problem is that we've just been underfunding public transit in the city for at least 20 years. I've spoken to the transit union, and we really have not been adding new buses to the fleet over the last 20 years. We've only been buying new buses as old ones have been decommissioned. As our population has been rising, there just hasn't been, the bus fleet has not been keeping up with that population growth, especially on the outlying areas of the city. And I think that's part of why the new system was done, to try and stretch out a lot of the existing bus fleet to newer areas, newer neighbourhoods. but you know at the cost of those more central neighborhoods I really do think that you know you need to properly invest in transit in the city to really get a good service. So let me ask you if you were to invest more money in transit and maybe buy more buses because you're talking about having more buses on the road would you keep the current system as it is and just enhance it or would you go back to the old system how would you use the new buses? I would enhance the current system You know, I do appreciate that a lot of people have been having worse service with this new one compared to the old one. But, you know, let's not have rose-colored glasses here. The old system wasn't working either. Buses were frequently late. I've had buses just outright cancelled on me when I was a student. So I really do think there's some good ideas with the new system. They really should have waited another year to roll it out and done some more consultation on what routes people need. Specifically, I think a new direct route between the northwest of the city and downtown would be preferable. You have said widening Keniston is a waste of money. Why? Well, I just think that even from the perspective of somebody who only drives a car, we're not really getting a good value for that money. Yes, there is congestion on Keniston, but adding more lanes has repeatedly shown throughout Canada and the United States that you don't really solve traffic that way. it just encourages more people to get in their cars and you know at the same time we're spending all this money to increase the speed limit from 50 kilometers an hour to 60 kilometers an hour i've looked over the plans quite a bit and i just don't think it's a good value for the money and i'd rather spend that on public transit investments um in terms of public transit investments why do you think you you've also said that you would you would be connecting existing cyclists cycling routes you'd have rapid transit all fit like all through the downtown why do you think you'd be capable of getting that done when i mean previous mayor Brian Bowman that's what he ran on for two terms and he couldn't achieve that his goals i think it was just uh less of a priority i mean he had a lot of different things on his plates uh mostly you know road construction and uh those new outer line areas that got built in the last 10 years or so how high is that on your list transit improvements and cycling improvements i would say it's number one uh with the safety as close second. Go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to say that, you know, we really do need to start investing more into alternatives to the car because, you know, it really has been a drain on our city resources to have all this urban sprawl that's very car dependent. Do you think that if we had more cycling lanes, more people would actually cycle and give up their cars? I think people at the very least would decide, okay, maybe today the weather's nice, it's a safe ride, and they'll pick that bike instead of their car. I don't expect people to give up their cars entirely. I just want to provide that option to at least have a noticeable reduction on our streets. You talked about safety, so let's go there next. In a recent Abacus survey that you may have heard about, respondents, Winnipeggers, suggesting that addiction and homelessness are key concerns for them, in addition to public safety. Those are different problems, but in points they intersect. What is the solution that you want people to understand should you become mayor you would follow? Well, I really think the current strategy of sending the police down our downtown streets to harass vulnerable people really just isn't working. You need to have a plan in place. Why use the word harass? I think that a lot of it has been just, you know, there hasn't been a plan in place to actually encourage people to find supports to get them into rehabilitation care and find transitional housing. And I think if you're not actually going to have a plan for that, then harassment's really the best word I can think of. You know, at the very least, if they had connected people at the beginning of the anti-drug blitzes on Main Street with those supports, then I think there's a better argument. But the fact is that the mayor had only considered anything after the fact, and I just think that's a horrible way to do things. You should really involve community groups at the start to ask, what do we need to do here, instead of asking after. And if you were mayor, what would you do in terms of public safety overall, in addition to the outreach piece you're talking about, which you think should be done differently, how would you use police to help with public safety and people that are uncomfortable in parts of Winnipeg? Well, I would rather the police focus on more theft and violent crime. I think what's a better idea for more vulnerable people, separate from addictions and homelessness is to rely on more of those community support groups and I would increase grant funding so they could do a much better impact on helping those people throughout our city. Housing, how would you improve it? I really do think we need to start building up a lot more in the city instead of out. You know for the last 70 years our housing strategy has been to build wide suburban lots with residences where they use up more resources for road maintenance sewer maintenance than their tax revenue actually provides so we do need to start a densification of a lot of our housing and I would prefer to do some responsible infill within our city to accomplish that. What is responsible infill mean? Well I think a lot of concerns throughout infill in this city recently has been that developers will just build a ugly building in a neighborhood residents complain but City Hall doesn't listen and that building is allowed to stay, it provides a bit more strain on the neighbourhood. I really think we need to make sure that developers are keeping communities in mind instead of profits and making sure that the design of these buildings, whether it be the look of it or whether it's the impact on the community, is an actual benefit to the community and does go along with the neighbourhood nicely. Alright Noel Redden, for those voters that don't know you, why out of all 12 candidates, lots of people to choose from, are you the best person to become the next Mayor of Winnipeg? I think I just bring a nice, refreshing take to City Hall. You know, I'm not getting involved with a lot of the drama around other candidates. I prefer to just put out my vision and put out my plan to make a better city without just getting into the weeds with our candidates. Good luck on the 28th. Thank you so much.