COUNCIL of the CITY of WINNIPEG Thursday, April 29, 2021
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COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WINNIPEG Thursday, April 29, 2021 The Council met at 9:41 a.m. The Clerk advised the Speaker that a quorum was present. The Speaker called the meeting to order. The opening prayer was read by Councillor Eadie. ROLL CALL Clerk: Councillors Allard, Browaty, Orlikow, Madam Speaker Councillor Sharma, His Worship Mayor Bowman, Councillors Chambers, Eadie, Gillingham, Gilroy, Klein, Lukes, Mayes, Nason, Rollins, Santos and Schreyer. INTRODUCTION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Madam Speaker: Thank you. Mr. Mayor, over to you for morning announcements. Thank you. Mayor Bowman: Thank you, Madam Speaker. And good morning to my colleagues and all those that are watching these proceedings. Councillor Eadie has me singing and humming in my mind. I won't subject you to my voice. Good song I heard this month was from Nancy Wilson called ‘4 Edward’. It was dedicated to Eddy Van Halen. So, I’d encourage you to check that acoustic piece out. Madam Speaker, we have had a number of holidays that many Winnipeggers have celebrated over the last month including Good Friday, Easter Monday as my family celebrated, and I know many in this council chamber celebrated. Vaisakhi, Ramadan Mubarak and Vasanta Navrati, and I apologize if I’ve mispronounced that last holiday. We’ve also commemorated numerous things over the last month including, of course, Holocaust Remembrance Day on April the 7th, The 104th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and Madam Speaker, also as of today; today is, of course, the one-year anniversary of a terrible occurrence with the crash of Stalker 22 where we lost 6 members of the Canadian Armed Forces. And, of course, we offer our continuing thoughts and prayers to all members of the Canadian Armed Forces including all those that serve here in the City of Winnipeg at 17 Wing and 1 Canadian Air Division. And I want to thank Councillor Gillingham's ongoing efforts to work collaboratively and support the members of the Canadian Armed Forces that are serving our country here in the City of Winnipeg. We celebrated...or recognized a number of awareness days including the Humboldt Broncos anniversary and Green Shirt Day on the 6th and 7th, respectively. Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, Animal Shelter and Rescue Awareness Day and Volunteer Appreciation Week as well as National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, World Immunization Week, and yesterday, the Worker's Day of Mourning, Madam Speaker. We also, celebrated the opening of Qaumajuq at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The opening of the Bill and Helen Norrie Library and the Bonivital Pool Library reopening. We also announced on April 1st, the new Dogs on Bikes Program, Madam Speaker. We also, over the last number of days, I’ve reached out and have had dialogue with the mayors of Reykjavik, Iceland as well as well as Lviv, Ukraine. We have celebrated this last month, the 50-year anniversary of our sister city relationship with Reykjavik and we are having ongoing dialogue with numerous sister cities including the two that I’ve mentioned. Many members of Council attended the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce Civic Leader's Dinner and have been supporting annual spring cleanups including the one that was initiated recently by the City of Winnipeg to clean up our streets and active transportation corridors. Lots going on in intergovernmental. We have been continuing to support the efforts of Manitoba Health by providing staff recently at the supersite, that request came in on March 26th. We have had a recent Manitoba budget federal budget and I have attended the first legislative committee to speak to Bill 37, Madam Speaker. And I’ll just conclude by recognizing and noting that since our last Council meeting, we have seen 2,667 new cases of COVID being reported by provincial officials in the City of Winnipeg. We have sadly lost 25 more residents to COVID since our last Council meeting. When we held our last Council meeting, Madam Speaker, we had a test positivity rate in the City of Winnipeg of 3.6 percent. Yesterday, we are at 8.4 percent. I just urge Winnipeggers to please stick to those fundamentals. Follow the letter and spirit of the provincial public health orders. We will weather this storm by working together and I would just wish a good health and safety for members of Council, the Public Service and all Winnipeggers, Madam Speaker. Thank you, merci and megwich. Madam Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councillor Chambers, your morning announcement. Councillor Chambers: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise today to bring notice that Saturday, May 1st, is the kickoff to Asian Heritage Month. The Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba will be staging a series of month-long virtual events to showcase their contributions to our...of our vibrant Asian community here locally. Madam Speaker, we can all acknowledge 2 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WINNIPEG April 29, 2021 that this past year has been one of the most challenging in recent history. Not only have we had to deal with a global pandemic, but members of our Asian community have had to deal with a rising epidemic of racial intolerance and hateful rhetoric. The mischaracterization and false claims of COVID-19 have perpetuated intolerance and acts of violence against members of our Asian community. I was viscerally appalled to see senior members of the Asian community attacked as they go about their day-to-day business, unaware that somebody would arbitrarily leap out and attack them. It's through events that are being planned by the Asian community here in Manitoba that will help bring understanding, empathy and hope, that we can build cultural competencies and learn that we are more alike than we are different. I stand with our Asian community in calling out and putting an end to Asian hate. There can be no coalition building towards a brighter future. And there is no freedom until all of us are free. So, as we kickoff Asian Heritage Month here in Winnipeg, we do so with renewed hope and resiliency. We're moving forward with a desire and an intention to build better, to take care of each other and to heal physically, emotionally and spiritually. Madam Speaker, I encourage all of my council colleagues to promote the values of equity, diversity, inclusion now and with every word that you write, every speech that you orate and with every intention of your actions. Together we can build a Winnipeg that's unified in its interests in becoming truly inclusive. Thank you. Madam Speaker: Thank you, Councillor Chambers. Councillor Klein Councillor Klein: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise today for two points. First, I want to acknowledge the over 447,000 Manitobans and Winnipeggers that have taken the time to be vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccination is one step towards an end, and it is a light at the end of the tunnel. And I would urge all Manitobans and all Winnipeggers to take that time and be vaccinated. We have seen what it is doing to our community and we have seen what it is doing to not only our province and country, but it is affecting the entire world. And I also want to take a moment to ask my colleagues to join me in sharing your thoughts and prayers with those in India. We have seen the impacts, as I stated, on our country, but we have watched the devastating impacts, the horrible images coming out of India. And they need our thoughts and prayers today. And we need to support them and the family members that live here, in our community, that are watching with fear or sorrow as those in their country suffer. So, again, I urge all my colleagues to take time today to think about those in India and have them in their prayers as they deal with the pandemic. Reconvened meeting of Winnipeg City Council of April 29, 2021, at 10:08 a.m. Mr. Deputy Speaker: I would like to call the meeting back to order. I’ll be in the Chair for a moment. And I would like to call on all of us to stand, who can, and take a moment of silence, please for the people of…the people of India. Thank you. I will hand the Chair back to Madam Speaker Sharma. Madam Speaker: Thank you, Councillor Eadie. MINUTES Councillor Chambers moves that the Minutes of the meeting held on March 25th, 2021, be taken as read and confirmed. Madam Speaker: All in favour? Contrary? Carried. We will now move into delegations. We have a number of delegations today all joining us via Zoom. First up is David Grant. He wishes to address Council in regards to 7 items this morning. The report from the Executive Policy Committee, opposition to Item 1, Additional Indemnities for Members of Executive Policy Committee Expenses. He’s in support of Item 3, the Emergency Management Leadership Team COVID-19 Response and Recovery Plan. He is in opposition to Item 4, Use of the Vote Information System at City Council Meetings, and in opposition to Item 18, Support of Canadian News Media. From the Public Works report he is in support of Item 3, Approval of the 2021 Edition of the Manual of Temporary Traffic Control on City Streets, and in opposition to Item 1, Winnipeg Transit Master Plan, and Item 4, Extending the Sunday Holiday Bike Route. Mr. Grant. David Grant: Hello. Councillor Nason: Is he only afforded 10 minutes for seven items? Madam Speaker: We have ten minutes on the clock and there certainly can be additional time requested if needed.