Every issue, sorted honestly
The issues
Each one is tagged with what the office can actually do about it. Some are
council’s to move on. Some run through a process. Some belong to somebody
else entirely, and on those, all I can honestly offer is to be the
loudest voice in the room.
An arena of our own
Council can move it
“We’ve got the kids. We’ve got the families up at six in the morning. What we don’t have is a rink to put them in.”
My son plays hockey, but not here. Every hockey family in this municipality drives out for practices and games. An arena is a genuine municipal decision, and the honest path runs through the Recreation Master Plan. I’m not going to promise you a grand opening. I’ll promise to put it on the table and fight to keep it there.
Recreation for a growing municipality
Council can move it
“One community space, instead of six errands in six directions.”
We have a decent base: a rec site and the Access Centre, parks, trails, some courts. But for a municipality growing this fast it’s stretched thin. No arena of our own. No pool, so swim lessons still mean a drive into the city. And for our four-legged residents, there’s no off-leash dog park either.
I’d like us to plan for all of it properly: parks, courts for basketball and pickleball and tennis, an off-leash dog park, and yes, a pool down the road, ideally pulled together into one real community space instead of six errands in six directions. And I’ll be straight with you: a pool is the most expensive thing a municipality our size can build, and I haven’t costed it. So I’m not promising a ribbon-cutting date. What I’ll promise is to get all of it planned the right way, through the Recreation Master Plan, and to keep it moving, and the R.M. is building that plan right now, which makes this exactly the moment for residents to have their say.
The school after the new one
Not city hall's to decide
“Credit where it’s due today, and eyes on tomorrow.”
There’s a brand-new K-to-8 school going up here, and I’m not going to pretend nobody’s doing anything, because that would be a lie. Take the win. Then ask what comes after it. If we keep approving subdivisions without planning the next school, we’re back in combined classrooms in a few years, just in a newer building.
A public high school
Not city hall's to decide
“Not my decision has never once meant not my problem.”
Every morning West St. Paul sends its teenagers out of the municipality, on a bus into Winnipeg, because there’s no public high school here. This one belongs to the province and the school division, not to city hall. I can’t make it happen on my own. What I can be is the most persistent voice in the room demanding it from the people who can.
Childcare you can get into
Not city hall's to decide
“We lost about four years to a waitlist.”
There are no non-profit child care centres here. New spaces are coming with the new school. That’s a real start, and it isn’t enough at this pace. A mayor can’t run a daycare, but a mayor can plan for the spaces we need and push hard for the funding.
Housing so seniors can stay
Council can move it
“Nobody should have to leave West St. Paul to grow old in it.”
We have Middlechurch for full-support care and a life-lease building beside it. For a community growing this fast those options are thin, and a lot of seniors still end up leaving to find the right fit. This is about people who can still live independently but don’t want to keep up a whole house. Council can move on it through land use.
If you don't drive, you're stuck
Not city hall's to decide
“I can’t promise you a bus line. I can promise I won’t stop asking for one.”
A student. A senior who’s stopped driving. Someone who simply can’t right now. There’s no regular bus route between here and Winnipeg at all. There is a limited accessible-transit service, and I’m glad it exists, but it isn’t a transit system. A real route needs Winnipeg to say yes.
Drainage and ditches
Council's call
“This one is fully ours. No one else to wait on.”
Out here it’s ditches, not storm sewers, and they need to be properly maintained and cleaned so water actually moves. Heavy rain shouldn’t mean a sump pump running non-stop. Drainage is squarely council’s responsibility, which means there’s no one else to point at.