Winnipeg votes 2018: Daniel McIntyre ward profile

• About the ward
• News stories from Daniel McIntyre
• Meet the candidates
• See what the candidates say on key issues
• More ward profiles from CBC Manitoba​

The Daniel McIntyre ward is located in Winnipeg's West End. In includes the city's Sargent Park, Daniel McIntyre, Spence, Central Park, Portage-Ellice, Colony, St. Matthews, Minto and Wolseley neighbourhoods.

Daniel McIntyre has a population of 46,882, according to 2016 census data, and there were 29,154 eligible voters in the ward during the 2014 civic election. A total of 12,550 cast ballots in the ward in 2014.

The ward is currently represented by Cindy Gilroy, who defeated longtime councillor Harvey Smith in the 2014 civic election. She is running for re-election in the Oct. 24 election, and faces challengers Josh Brandon and Sarowar Miah.

Other facts about the neighbourhood:

• Between January 2016 and Sept. 28, 2018, there were a total of 14,080 calls made to the city's 311 service by Daniel McIntyre residents, according to city data. Missed garbage collection (3,714 complaints) and neighborhood livability (3,429) were the most common reasons for calls to 311. 
• According to the city's CrimeStat data, there have been 1,036 incidents reported to police in Daniel McIntyre in the year to date (as of Sept. 28, 2018). There were 1,025 incidents reported during the same period in 2017. The most commonly reported crime was non-commercial robbery — there have been 201 such incidents reported so far in 2018, compared to 249 during the same period in 249 (a 19 per cent drop). There have been three homicides in the ward so far this year and were five during the same period in 2017.

News stories from Daniel McIntyre

Meet the candidates

Three candidates are running in the Daniel McIntyre ward.

Josh Brandon describes himself as a "social justice advocate, anti-poverty organizer, environmentalist, and enthusiastic Winnipegger." Born and raised in Surrey, B.C., he moved to Winnipeg in 2007. Brandon is a community organizer with the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg and was formerly chair of Make Poverty History Manitoba.

Cindy Gilroy is the councillor currently representing Daniel McIntyre ward. Born and raised in the West End, Gilroy attended elementary at Sargent Park School and Technical Vocational High School. She was previously a member of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

Sarowar Miah has served on the Manitoba Ethnocultural Advisory and Advocacy Council, providing advice to the government about issues like multiculturalism and advocating on behalf of Manitoba's vibrant ethno-cultural community. He also led a fundraising campaign for flood victims in Bangladesh.

What the candidates say on key issues

Questions in this section were among those voters in the ward said they wanted asked of candidates. Responses have been edited and condensed.

What are you going to do about the increasing violence and crime in the neighbourhood?

Josh Brandon: I think we do need to look at the root causes of that. We need to address how a lot of the crime we see in our neighbourhood is connected with drug problems and is also connected with poverty, and so we need to address those. We're not going to police our way out of this problem. We need resources at the community level that provide grassroots solutions to these problems.

So, as a city councillor I would push for better funding for community safety initiatives such as Bear Clan, such as 24-hour safe spaces, the Gang Awareness project and other community level resources.

Cindy Gilroy: We need this [a proposed meth task force] to happen. We all know that the crime that is coming from this is coming from the meth crisis that we are having.

Another piece is making sure we work and establish resident organizations that are being out there in the community, making sure that they're visible, connecting with each other, letting them know if something is a little off in their community — you know, like a "citizens on patrol" [group]. We have a few of those and those are very, very successful programs.

And then making sure that we do have great recreational programs for our youth so they don't get involved in that kind of stuff. And also, too, we need to keep working with our End Homelessness partnership that we have … and I think that affordable housing is another key component.

Sarowar Miah: We have to give [people] training, like we have to open up for them more training, school. I guess something like that. Then they're not involved in those kinds of crime. 

Maybe some people are mentally not OK, you know? That's why they're involved with crime. But if we give them training, like how they come back to normal people, then he'll not do the crime.… We also need to open up more foot patrol, [like] Bear Clan. 

What are you going to do about the mess left by drug users in public spaces like parks?

Josh Brandon: I think we need resources to some of the community groups. They're doing collection projects and that can help in the short term. But we also need to think more holistically, looking at how if we treat people like they don't belong in society, if we treat people like they're disposable, then they're not going to have the resources to take care of their community.

So if we provide people with good quality housing, with living-wage jobs, with good health services and other services in our community, then I think that strengthens the community as a whole and we'll start to see some of the problems with trash and needles and other hazards in our community become reduced.

Cindy Gilroy: That does come down to citizens making sure they let us know, because we don't always know that there's issues in parks.

I've started going down with my family and friends and we've been going into parks, we've been cleaning it up once we hear that there is a need. Parks will also do that, but we really need the community to also come together and let us know if there is issues in these parks so we can get at them.

Sarowar Miah: Those kind of patrol groups … they can stop those things. If we give [community organizations] more funding, they can work, you know? And they [are] going to be help the community.

Are there plans to have more places for those who are addicted to drugs or homeless to go in the neighbourhood? Will there be better access to housing and mental health services going forward?

Josh Brandon: I strongly believe we should prioritize housing and specifically housing with supports. I was on the End Homelessness housing supply committee and we have a need for probably 7,000 units of housing that are geared toward people at risk of homelessness.

We need to work with other levels of government to ensure that we have those resources in place. And where the city can help is through instruments like zoning, through requirements that we have affordable housing in place in new developments.

Cindy Gilroy: That is the hope we're going to have with the task force. 

The city is part of the End Homelessness strategy. I know that we are working on an affordable housing strategy so there are things that the city does has at its disposal. I feel like we're starting to do some of that, but we also need to connect with the different levels of government to see what other approaches we can take. 

Sarowar Miah: Low-income people, we have to give them housing. We have to provide the housing. This area, I think a lot of people is low-income. They don't have enough housing, so we need to provide them the housing.

We have to open up more place to bring those people who is addicted and mentally sick, you know? We have to provide to the health treatment, provide to the education.… We have to give them training, how they become the normal life. The Main Street Project, like that, you know? We have to open up something in Daniel McIntyre.

More CBC Manitoba election ward profiles:

• Charleswood-Tuxedo
• Elmwood-East Kildonan
• Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry
• Mynarski
• North Kildonan
• Old Kildonan
• Point Douglas
• River Heights-Fort Garry
• St. Boniface
• St. James
• St. Norbert-Seine River
• St. Vital
• Transcona
• Waverley West​

Journalism students from Red River College's creative communications program have prepared profiles of each city of Winnipeg ward ahead of the 2018 civic election for CBC Manitoba. Read all of our election 2018 coverage here.