Umar Hayat - A New Friend
I spent an hour with him. No one will ever be able to say that I talk too much again. If they do, I will tell them to go talk to Umar. I was exhausted after spending time with him and I couldn't even keep up to him. The photograph is a good summary of our time together. He never stops smiling and he is so much fun that you can't help smiling in his presence.
He is running for Mayor and says he is probably the poorest candidate in terms of campaign resources. He is basically operating his campaign on social media. He has been trying to get the attention of mainstream media for two months. He is hoping now that debates are happening, that they will be interested in giving him attention.
He is not a fan of the current Mayor. He feels the city has been damaged more by Bowman than it was by Katz. In 2014, our city was $900M in debt and now we are $1.7B in debt. He is a numbers guy and his background is business and finance. He admits that he can't verify many of the numbers he was giving me and that was an issue for him. His attempts at getting specific numbers have been thwarted by privacy issues at City Hall. He doesn't understand this. It is our tax payer money, why is it secret? He says that when Bowman has been asked about finances, he has referred to Scott Gillingham, Finance Chair. Shouldn't the Mayor have his pulse on finances?
He is against opening Portage and Main because we have bigger problems to tackle. I can't verify these numbers but he says that Winnipeg spends 28% of our budget on policing as opposed to a similar city of Edmonton which spends 14%. He indicates that the city revenue is declining by about $10M/year.
He would like to turn ambulance service back to the province so that the city is out of the health care business fully. This would save money for anyone using an ambulance. He would be in favour of geared-to-income bus pass.
He said that Bowman campaigned in 2014 to get rid of EPC (Executive Policy Committee). He hasn't but Hayat would. He doesn't understand why some Councillors have more power than others.
311 is a failure to the city, he notes. They had 1.3 callers in 2017 and only 700,000 calls were responded to. I hope he is wrong about these numbers.
Impact fees are ensuring that many Winnipegers are unable to build their dream home and also ensuring that big developers have a monopoly on development.
Revenues at city golf courses are declining yet we are still responsible for maintenance. He thinks it makes sense to reduce city ownership to 49% so that more private ownership would reduce city's obligations and the private sector could be more motivated to be profitable.
His biggest priority is mental health and supporting those who live with mental illness. When people are treated with dignity and hope, they treat others with dignity and hope. He has a plan to change how we recycle that would not onlyl reduce the costs associated with recycling but allow us to make money from recycling.
Bowman thinks of being the Mayor as a job, according to Hayat, where he thinks it should be a passion.
He had so many ideas that I couldn't even keep up. I thought I was exhausted but we exchanged social media and I reviewed his online last evening. This man never quits ! He is passionate and is willing to talk to anyone who will listen. He is worth listening to as he has some really innovative ideas. I will let you ask him about his plan to open City Hall 24/7. It is very innovative.
I still don't know who I am going to vote for as Mayor and I still have some time to ponder. Umar Hayat is definitely in the running. Even though I am not positive how I will support, I am getting closer to knowing who I won't support.
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