Winnipeg residents deserve better treatment at City Hall
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Winnipeg residents who take the time to stand before city council deserve one thing above all else: respect.
They are not lobbyists. They are not paid consultants. They are citizens who care enough about their city to show up at City Hall, often during work hours, to speak about decisions that affect their neighbourhoods, their taxes, and their future.
Yet more and more, those residents are being treated as an inconvenience.
Last week’s Executive Policy Committee meeting provided another example.
Marianne Cerilli, a former city councillor, registered to speak about the proposed Chief Peguis Trail extension and broader infrastructure decisions. Her experience should concern anyone who believes public hearings exist for a reason.
Cerilli says she was interrupted repeatedly while presenting her comments. She was cut off while attempting to connect council decisions on infrastructure with other policies being debated at City Hall. She was told the clock would stop when the mayor spoke, yet the interruptions continued.
Whether one agrees with Cerilli’s position or not is irrelevant. That is not the point.
Public delegations are not debates between the mayor and a resident. They are opportunities for elected officials to listen.
Council has the power. They control the agenda, the votes, the billions in taxpayer spending. Residents are given a few minutes to share their perspective. The least council can do is allow them to finish their thoughts without interruption.
But that basic courtesy seems to be slipping.
Over the years, the time allowed for public presentations has been reduced. Residents used to have more time to speak. Today many are limited to five minutes.
The explanation is usually efficiency. Council meetings run long. Councillors have other obligations.
But public input is not supposed to be convenient. Democracy rarely is.
When councillors say they hear the same arguments repeatedly, that should not lead to shorter speaking times. It should lead to closer listening.
If dozens of residents are repeating the same concern, it likely means the concern is real.
What message does it send when council responds by shortening the clock?
Mayor Scott Gillingham often points out that Winnipeg’s delegation rules are among the best in the country. Perhaps on paper that is true.
But rules are only meaningful if the culture around them respects the public.
Interrupting speakers, debating them mid-presentation, or treating them like obstacles to get through before the next agenda item does not reflect a culture of listening.
Winnipeg residents pay the salaries of the people sitting around that council table. Most councillors earn well over $100,000 a year. The mayor earns significantly more.
That compensation comes with a responsibility to listen to the people who fund those salaries.
Even when the comments are uncomfortable. Even when council disagrees.
City hall should welcome criticism. It is part of the job.
Cerilli also raised other concerns that deserve clarification, including the treatment of other presenters and questions about how personal information collected during registration is handled.
These are not small matters. Public trust in institutions is already fragile. Transparency and clear answers are essential if that trust is to be maintained.
But the larger issue goes beyond one meeting or one presenter.
It is about the relationship between citizens and their government.
When residents begin to feel that speaking at city hall is pointless, participation drops. When participation drops, accountability weakens. And when accountability weakens, decision-making suffers.
Winnipeg already struggles with confidence in local government. Crime, infrastructure backlogs and economic stagnation have residents questioning whether the city is moving in the right direction.
City council cannot afford to add public alienation to that list.
Listening costs nothing. Interruptions cost credibility.
Ultimately, voters also share responsibility.
Many of the councillors sitting at City Hall today have been there for more than a decade. Elections come and go, yet the faces around the council table rarely change.
If residents believe Winnipeg is improving under that leadership, they should continue voting the same way.
But if people feel their city is falling behind, if they feel ignored when they try to speak up, then the solution is not another frustrated presentation at city hall.
The solution is the ballot box.
Democracy gives citizens five minutes at the podium.
It gives them far more power at the voting booth.
—Kevin Klein is the Publisher of the Winnipeg Sun, a former City Councillor, and Minister of Environment with the Government of Manitoba and Host of Inside Politics. — Follow Kevin Klein on Facebook, X, YouTube, and visit his website kevinklein.ca
