The Cost of Inaction: Why Gillingham’s Election-Year Band-Aids Fail to Match Woodstock’s Addiction and Homelessness Blueprint
- Don Woodstock
- Canada
- July 27, 2026
As the municipal election campaign unfolds across Winnipeg, voters face a fundamental choice regarding leadership, priorities, and how to tackle the very real challenges facing the city. A week ago Monday provided a clear illustration of two very different approaches to leadership between incumbent Mayor Scott Gillingham and my campaign, highlighting the contrast between surface announcements and structural policy solutions.
The day began with an announcement from Mayor Gillingham, who pledged one hundred thousand dollars out of his discretionary fund (taxpayer monies) to support a local community organization providing safety walks for patrons of the performing arts. This is the exact same community organization that he promised to permanently fund when he was running for mayor years ago. Not only did he fail to fulfill that initial promise, but he broke it, waiting until months before the election to hand out temporary funding. While safety initiatives are certainly part of the broader civic conversation, this announcement sidesteps the core systemic crises defining life in Winnipeg right now. After four years in office, and despite public safety being a central pillar of his initial election platform, crime rates remain high and homelessness and encampments continue to spread across neighbourhoods.
When the mayor himself has repeatedly acknowledged that people across Winnipeg are telling him they do not feel safe, the timing of this funding raises stark questions. Because this money came straight out of his discretionary slush fund, there was nothing stopping him from funding this NGO years ago when the safety crisis first demanded it. Instead, waiting until election time turns a vital community need into a political photo-op. When the city already spends $125 M annually tackling public safety and related social issues. On October 28th, if nothing changes at the top, nothing changes for the humanitarian crisis on the streets of Winnipeg.
As a former pastor who spent decades leading faith communities, it raises serious questions to watch how someone can sit in the mayor’s chair for four years, witness mounting human suffering on a daily basis, and conclude that the current trajectory is acceptable. Has the mayor lost touch with the foundational duty of tangible service, opting instead for safe, incremental optics?
Take a look at the mayor’s press conference, safely flanked by security in the Exchange District where he felt the safest. It speaks volumes. This is your city, and he sets the rules for safety, yet if he cannot make an announcement where people are hurting the most, that speaks volumes about his administration and policies.
In direct contrast, my campaign released a comprehensive twenty page policy blueprint on that exact same Monday, detailing a line by line strategy to permanently address homelessness, addiction, and encampments through coordinated wrap around services. Rather than relying on guarded press conferences, my team and I held our announcement directly in the heart of downtown at Higgins and Main, right in front of the Salvation Army and Thunderbird House. Standing there firsthand, seeing the raw devastation and destruction of addictions in our core, grounded our policy in absolute reality rather than political distance. We engaged directly with the community and provided basic nourishment and water to help individuals through their day.
This comprehensive framework utilizes existing federal, provincial, and municipal funding structures to deliver real results without adding any additional financial burden to Winnipeg taxpayers, ultimately achieving a net benefit for the city. Major news organizations were provided with advance copies of this complete policy document a full week prior to the public rollout, offering journalists an in depth look at tangible solutions to the city’s most pressing humanitarian needs.
The media plays an essential role in informing the public, and while this race realistically comes down to a small handful of serious contenders, there is a clear propensity within the broader media landscape to ensure the incumbent mayor receives maximum coverage for every announcement regardless of its actual significance. Other candidates who are actively putting forward substantive press conferences, detailed releases, and rigorous policy solutions should not be ignored or sidelined simply because the mayor has chosen a slower campaign rhythm. When serious candidates do the heavy lifting to provide fully costed blueprints, those plans deserve the same public attention as day to day mayoral announcements.
The themes surrounding this campaign and the reality of our streets are reflected in my recent musical releases, including Winnipeg Rhapsody, which speaks directly to the struggles of homelessness, and Read My Lips, which captures the weight of four years of unfulfilled promises. I encourage everyone to download the complete policy blueprint at donwoodstock.com, view the footage of our press conference right in the heart of the city alongside the mayor’s guarded appearance, and go a step further by comparing it against every candidate’s platform on homelessness and addictions to see the depth, time, and genuine effort poured into these solutions. Eventually, when the mayor puts out his own policy on these issues, the stark difference will be clear. Until then, this is what a focused, detailed policy looks like from a Woodstock administration as we move forward.
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