b"FROM OUR DIRECTOR OF STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENTAND ADVOCACYA New Era in Construction Cooperation with the City of Winnipeg?On October 26, Scott Gillingham was elected mayor of Winnipeg in a very close race against 10 other candidates. During the campaign, Gillingham offered a thorough campaign platformcomplete with costed promises. The benefit for Winnipeggers is that, with a complete platform, we know what Mayor Gillinghams priorities are.The Winnipeg Construction Association was quick to engage with Mayor Gillingham early in the campaign period to ensure our views on future priorities for our city were top of mind. Similar to other candidates, we asked Mayor Gillingham multiple questions on issues important to our members.Our first priority is an efficiently run and adequately resourced Planning, Property and Development (PP&D) department to ensure that the construction industry is not needlessly waiting for development and building permits. Mayor Gillingham told us that there needs to be a culture shift in the PP&D department:I don't believe the problem with permit delays is a resource problem alone. Its also a cultural problem, and a structural problem that comes from permits being in the wrong kind of department.Mayor Gillingham also recognized the need to invest in the digitization of the process: We need to. invest more capital in digital service fulfillment so that permit issuance is no longer something that depends on whether you have a good or bad relationship with a particular manager.The second priority for WCA is the adoption of standardized construction documents on City of Winnipeg construction projects. The current City of Winnipeg General Conditions are not fair to contractors and foster an adversarial relationship. We would like to see the City of Winnipeg use industry-developed CCDC documents. When asked whether he supports the adoption of CCDC documents, Mayor Gillingham stated:Yes, and I would go further. I would not only support moving to standardized documents for the sector; I also believe that a council committee should hold public hearings on the differences in our contracts generally to squeeze out the temptation by our departmental staff to always add additional points of complexity.These statements give the Winnipeg construction industry reason to be hopeful.Mayor Gillingham has announced City Councillor Sherri Rollins as Chair of the PP&D Committee. Councillor Rollins has previous experience with this committee and is keenly aware of some of the issues facing constructionmost notably, the dispute resolution process used by the City of Winnipeg. Both Mayor Gillingham and Councillor Rollins have a positive track record when it comes to collaborating, so we look forward to working with them and the rest of council in the coming years to deliver improvements to the permit system and City construction projects.Darryl Harrison10 BUILD MANITOBAwinnipegconstruction.ca"