Murray vows to ditch police chopper, achieve net-zero emissions

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This article was published 11/07/2022 (800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The police helicopter will be grounded, Winnipeg will have net-zero emissions, and all residents will have a key to a safe home.

Those are key elements of Glen Murray’s vision for Winnipeg, which the mayoral candidate has laid out in five campaign priorities.

While he doesn’t expect to achieve some of the most ambitious goals until 2040, a date that’s more than four full council terms away, Murray said his 2022 campaign will unveil specific steps toward achieving all of the goals.

“I haven’t been mayor for (18) years, but the (Canada Life Centre) arena got built, the human rights museum got built, rapid transit got built … these are all things that we laid the groundwork for and we steered and navigated and negotiated,” said Murray.

“It’s not just what you do when you are mayor, but (it’s also about) the things that came out of it.”

While he did serve as Winnipeg’s mayor from 1998 to 2004, Murray acknowledged those developments were led by other groups and didn’t take place during his time in office. However, he said it’s important that city council supported them.

If elected mayor, Murray said he would introduce a “quick-start” program within council’s first 100 days in office to lay out his first round of five-year planning targets.

Perhaps one of the earliest targets would be paired with a goal to ground the Winnipeg Police Service helicopter, as one part of a strategy to partner with community groups to reduce crime.

“It’s a cost that I don’t think is justifiable… there are lots of better ways to spend a couple of million dollars in policing (and) also in community development. I think the time has come and gone for that and I think it’s time to move on,” said Murray.

He would prefer to have more beat cops on the street and rely on more drones instead.

“There is a whole new generation of (technology) that is more agile, less expensive and more flexible than a helicopter. I think that there are replacements for the helicopter that may be much more effective,” said Murray.

The city’s mayor doesn’t have the authority to manage police operations, but council could pass a safety strategy, in consultation with police, to get those changes implemented, Murray said.

By contrast, the police department has long described the chopper as a valuable tool. A police report credits Air1 for helping to save 13 lives, locate 738 people, assist with 101 pursuits and respond to 371 incidents involving weapons and/or assaults. The helicopter responded to 2,446 events in 2020 and cost about $2.1 million to operate that year.

Other parts of Murray’s vision would be much more complicated to implement, such as his goal to ensure Winnipeg produces net-zero waste and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, which he argues the city is the right size to achieve.

“Winnipeg is a ‘Goldilocks’ city. It’s just big enough to have everything we need to make these things happen, but it’s small enough to have a leadership group where people know each other and we can make decisions much more quickly than a big city like Toronto,” he said.

It’s within reach to ensure all Winnipeggers have “a key to a safe place to call home” by 2040, Murray said, estimating the city could commit to housing 3,000 more people over the next 10 years with the right investments and partnerships.

In both cases, details will be available later in the campaign, he said.

His other priorities include ensuring the city’s infrastructure is in a “state of good repair” and entering a “bold new partnership in shared governance with Indigenous people.”

A political expert said the former mayor is a front-runner.

“The front-runners are starting to be Scott Gillingham and Glen Murray because they’re showing some of the indicators of drawing strong endorsements from reputable folks (and) they have a good profile,” said Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

Several past and present city councillors have endorsed Gillingham’s mayoral bid, while the United Firefighters of Winnipeg union is backing Murray.

“That endorsement by the firefighters means that Glen Murray is not just a has-been, he’s a for-real candidate,” said Adams, noting Murray’s priority list should appeal to centre-left voters.

However, Adams cautioned it’s tough to predict who will lead the race this early in the campaign, due to a lack of publicly released polls to rank the many candidates.

Jenny Motkaluk, Chris Clacio, Don Woodstock, Rick Shone, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Shaun Loney, Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, and Desmond Thomas have also registered to run for mayor.

The election takes place on Oct. 26.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga