Overhaul Winnipeg city departments to improve customer service, mayoral candidate says

The City of Winnipeg needs to reorganize itself to make it more focused on customer service, according to mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham.

Winnipeg needs to create a "yes" culture at city hall, Gillingham says in a news release issued Monday.

Council should set key performance indicators to evaluate service delivery, Gillingham says.

He also wants to reorganize departments that deal with the public, such as 311 and permit approvals, under a single department focused on customer service.

He also proposescombining bylaw enforcement units to improve training and enforcement standards.

To help businesses and citizens get permits and development approvals faster, Gillingham says he supports adding at least six development case officerswho would report to the new customer-service department rather than the property and development department.

This would give these officers the freedom to independently flag problems to council and senior management, he says.

Earlier in the campaign, Gillingham released a plan that he says would cut wait-times for 311 callers down to three minutes. His plan includes a proposal to increase the 311budget by 25 per cent every year until wait times reach his target.

Other candidates have made proposals to improve customer service at the city. Jenny Motkaluk wants to cut the wait for permit approvals by 50 per cent, while Glen Murray has leased a 13-point plan to review a range of government service issueswith the goal of speeding up processes for developments.

The deadline for candidate nominations isTuesday, and the withdrawal deadline is on Wednesday.

Gillingham, Motkaluk and Murrayare among15 people running for mayor. Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Vincent Gabriele, Kevin Klein, Shaun Loney,Jessica Peebles, Rick Shone, Govind Thawani, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstockhave also registered their campaigns.

• Read more from CBC on the 2022 Winnipeg election

Candidates must submit nominationpapers bySept. 20in order to appear on the election-dayballot on Oct. 26.