From the pulpit to politics

What I Know About… is a new Free Press series where we speak to professionals from all walks of life about what they do for a living and the path they took to end up where they are today.

To kick things off, Scott Gillingham reflects on his first year as Winnipeg’s mayor.

The 44th mayor of Winnipeg was sworn in on Nov. 1, 2022. Gillingham, 55, was a Pentecostal pastor for more than 20 years before he pursued politics in 2014 when he was elected city councillor for St. James. He and his wife Marla have two adult children, Hannah and Andrew.

When I was younger… I thought I wanted to be a teacher or play professional hockey, like a lot of other Canadian kids. I grew up on a farm an hour outside of Winnipeg so I never, ever imagined or had an aspiration to be the mayor — and yet here we are.

The idea of… committing to serving others in some capacity was always part of what has driven my life. My parents have been that way so that was always modelled to me.

I went into pastoral ministry… as a goal to serve others, and I see politics as an extension of serving the community. I am still a man of faith; those who know the Gospels know Jesus said He did not come to be served but to serve.

I don’t always get it right, I don’t always do it perfectly, but that motivation to work on behalf of others to make the community better and to make lives better is what drives me.

In this job… the mayor needs to expect the unexpected. There are difficult issues that arise that you can’t predict and that have to be dealt with.

I knew that would happen, but when those things happen they take time and focus and energy to address and to deal with.

The biggest difference… between being a councillor and a mayor, I’ve found, is really trying to take that longer view of city-building. Now I am really dealing with citywide issues and a longer-term vision.

I try to… encourage my council colleagues to take the longer view: what decisions do Winnipeggers 20 years from now need us to make today? Let’s take a longer view of things and that requires patience.

Usually I am… a patient person, there are moments, of course, when, like anybody else, the patience runs a little thin, but for the most part, I am a patient person.

A pleasant surprise… I’ve had over this first year is the number of people throughout this city, from all walks of life, who have come up to me and offered to help. There are so many people in our city who are optimistic about Winnipeg.

I am most proud of… our people. We really have a resilient community and people who are committed to our city.

Many people have choices as to where they live, and as to where they invest and there are so many people that are committed to Winnipeg. Multi-generations of family members who are dedicated to making Winnipeg the kind of city that can reach its potential.

One of the things… I campaigned on and was involved in was the adoption of Winnipeg’s transit master plan.

That plan is a transformative plan, and the first big significant step of that plan will take place in the summer of 2025. It will really change the way our transit system works. It’s about building a modern transit service for a modern, growing city.

It’s really exciting, the direction that we are going. We will get a better transit system. It will be more reliable, more frequent service, easier service for transit users.

We need to encourage more and more people to take public transit and by implementing the transit master plan, it will be a better service for people.

We have to focus on… attracting more people to the core of our city, and getting more people to call the centre of our city home.

I’ve said to people, whether they are in Sage Creek, Waverley West, the Maples or Transcona, the health of Winnipeg’s downtown really matters to you; our city will only be as strong, ultimately, as our downtown is.

I think that’s one of the reasons that I and others are so committed to Winnipeg’s downtown — getting more people living in the downtown and visiting downtown — because that will lead to a healthier community.

I wish… all things were happening faster; I wish we were progressing faster. We are making good progress, don’t get me wrong, but everything takes time.

I wish it didn’t take so long to accomplish the things we need to accomplish. We are working on it. There’s just so much yet to accomplish.

We had a really good visionary platform that I campaigned on. We track how much we’ve accomplished and we’ve accomplished about 30 per cent of what we said we were going to do.

My wife and I… chuckle sometimes because if I head out to the grocery store to get a few things, what probably would have taken 15 or 20 minutes 10 years ago now takes double that time.

People come up and say hi and people take selfies; it’s all fun and it’s all part of serving the community. I am here to serve others and I don’t mind that at all.

There are too many… people living in our streets who are struggling unsheltered. There is a significant amount of funding and resources in addressing homelessness right now, but I don’t believe it is co-ordinated the way it needs to be.

Thankfully I believe we are in a really important moment where Premier (Wab) Kinew, myself, business leaders and the non-profits are all coming together and are aligning on addressing homelessness as a key priority. So we have a window of time right now where we all want to work together.

If we can… all partner together and share one plan and data, with the goal of getting homeless individuals into housing and wrap-around supports. If we can do all of that, then we’ve got a real chance of making a significant impact on the number of people who are struggling with homelessness.

More than 50 per cent of the people living unsheltered right now indicate they have had contact or been involved with Child and Family Services. We know that CFS is an area that needs attention so that we can prevent people from coming onto our streets.

What do people need in their lives to make sure that they get the resources and the help to lift them up so they don’t end up in that precarious, vulnerable life? That takes the whole team doing our respective parts to make sure we’re preventing homelessness and addressing homelessness and getting people the help they need.

I use the illustration often of a dragon boat, where we need to be all in the boat, rowing together with the same vision and the same plan. The other option is not going to get us an impact and that is like kayaks — individual kayaks kind of rowing around in a river.

I want us to be… building a city our grandchildren would want to live in, thrive in, have opportunity in and enjoy. Building with a long view in mind does take time and it does take persistence. We have to be persistent and consistent with fulfilling that vision.

There is no room for… hate in this city. When we see incidents that have been reported recently where people have been targeted because they’re Jewish or because they’re Muslim, it is very disturbing and it’s not the kind of city that we are trying to build. We can’t tolerate that.

I am very privileged… to serve the community this way. We need to continue to focus on serving people and working together. Ultimately it’s not one person that accomplishes things. It has to be a team — it has to be through collaboration and it has to be through working together if we are going to reach the potential that our city has. And I know that we can reach that potential.

It’s important to me to… do all I can to keep my word.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

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