Top 10 Questions to Ask Steph Meilleur Tomorrow at Public Safety Forum
1. It is one thing for a candidate to live outside of the Ward to run for Council. It is an entirely different thing for a candidate to live outside Winnipeg, thus, not pay property taxes to the City. If elected, it would be our tax dollars that she would be responsible for spending and/or raising them. If she has no interest in contributing these tax dollars to our public roll herself, how can we trust to use this money wisely? She lives in Warren, Manitoba which she describes as her dream home. She has rented a small apartment on West Broadway. She initially claimed she had been living there, but, she now acknowledges this is campaign headquarters. She was asked about this after the last candidates forum. She acknowledged she lives in Warren, but indicates her family is looking for a condo within the Ward. She said that privately to a citizen. People should ask her about those efforts? Also, if that is true, people should ask if her home in Warren is up for sale in preparation for the big move.
2. Steph Meilleur is proud of her accomplishments as Executive Director of Osborne Biz. I would ask her to elaborate on this. I have never seen so many empty store fronts on Osborne. It has been 7 years. I have been told she is pro Business. What is she doing to attract more business to Osborne? Also, when I tried to track her down yesterday, I went to the Office of Osborne Biz as listed on the current website. Vacant. And looks like it has been vacant for a while. The phone number has been disconnected. The cell phone listed was full and not able to accept messages. I decided to randomly go talk to some business owners in the Village and get their thoughts on the current ED. I stopped after two. I didn't have all day and my arm was sore from writing. I will try to paraphrase their comments. They say she is not very classy and difficult to reach. If she is hard to reach now, how will she be responsible to her constituents.
3. At the first forum that I attended, she basically took credit for almost everything good in Winnipeg. Grey Cup Festival, Canada Summer Games, and others. My partner was involved in both those activities and can't remember hearing her name. The only thing that she didn't take credit for was the Human Rights Museum. I would ask this Wonder Woman more specifics about her roles?
4. Ask her why she doesn't believe in free speech? I was driving in the Ward a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that someone had vandalized her signs by writing "Liar" on them. I started following and asking questions on her election site. I notice that my comments and several others are deleted shortly after they are posted? If you plan to be a City Councilor, you have to be able to develop a thicker skin. Some people ask questions because they actually are seeking information. Others may be a little snarky but that comes with the job. If elected, you will be representing all constituents, not just the ones who voted for you.
5. On her election page, she promotes herself as a tireless advocate for youth as evidenced by her being on the Board of the Manitoba Cheerleading Federation. I don't really think that is the "vote getter" that she thinks it is. I am going to hazard a guess that youth that are members of the Manitoba Cheerleading Federation are likely well taken care of and have atleast one person in their life that is encouraging them to follow their dreams. What about youth that are at risk or face food insecurity every day? How are you advocating for them?
5. The Osborne Foot Patrol that she takes great pride in and generously offers to roll it out to other areas of the City. She also blames previous Councilor Jenny Gerbasi for not supporting her in the efforts. Gerbasi disputes this and talks about attending a meeting with herself, Meilleur and Bowman where Bowman gave $30,000 grant to pay for the program and afterward she and Meilleur high-fived. Obviously, I believe Garbasi. She comes from the generation that high-fives. The younger generation fist bumps. Regardless, Jenny Gerbasi managed to spend 20 years on City Council. I am sure it feels like 60 years to her. I know that being in public office is rewarding, but, it also takes a toll on yourself and your family. It is just extremely unclassy for Steph to be critical of Gerbasi at this point. She also makes it sound like she is personally patrolling the streets by herself when the foot patrolers are paid positions. I would ask her if she ever considered partnering with the Bear Clan. I attended a Forum at Earl Grey Community Centre. They have a neighbourhood safety patrol who are volunteers. Did she look at their model? Also, foot patrols were actually started by the Winnipeg Police 15 years ago.
6. Take a look for the Oz Biz complaint the the Better Business Bureau in 2016. It is public record. I don't know about the complaint but I was interested in her response. It was a very minor complaint and one that should have never gotten to the BBB. It seemed the complainant tried to resolved it before escalating the matter. Her response was really harsh and contained a lot of absolutes. In the interest of PR for Oz Biz, the matter could have been handled differently. A more mature woman with vision might have considered giving the complainant a table for free at the next street festival. Also, when Meilleur responded to the complaint her email address was listed as steph@faceproductions.ca. So, she doesn't have an email from Oz Biz? I assume Face Productions is her event planning business. So, is Oz Biz contracting out the festival to her event planning business? Does that not seem like a conflict interest.
7. I would ask her about her repeated claims that the Canada Day Street Festival is the largest and longest in Canada. I don't know what she means by longest. It could be length or it could be chronological length. I can't find any information about the dates compared to other Street Festivals. But, she is claiming it is the longest so she must have the information at her finger tips. In terms of largest, that in not true. It doesn't even crack the top 10 of Street Festivals in the City of Toronto.
8. I would ask her what she is not in favour of? I'm serious. Being a member of City Council requires people to make tough decisions with limited resources. Not everybody's wish list will be fulfilled. Yet, she is an favour of everything. Anything that she has been asked she is in favour of. She also says she is favour of "aging in place". I would ask her what she specifically knows about this. There is a large community that works with seniors. How has she sat down with to discuss what this practically means.
9. I would ask her about her legal troubles. Public record indicates she was a Respondent in a law suit following a 2017 incident where an actress suffered a severe facial injury. Also, in 2018, there has been a lawsuit against Stevenson Property Management and Osborne Biz. It was going on for a long while because there was issues with serving her court documents. Judgement happened when she failed to show up in Court. In January, 2012, she was a respondent when an employee claimed he was not paid. She was ordered to pay $1163. to Minister of Finance. In 2013, another similar situation resulted in her being ordered to pay $821.55. Another Small Claims Action was filed in 2013 but this was settled before Judgement.
10. I would ask her to publicly release the names of contributors to her campaign. I realize this will become public record at some point, but I would press her for the list now. It has been suggested that some of her contributors have strings to their contributions. If I am completely wrong, then she should have no trouble releasing her contributors list.
So, those are the questions that I would be asking her tomorrow. I hope someone pursues these questions themselves. Let me know how it goes. I actually have more questions but these are my top 10.
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By the way, I am supporting candidate Michael Thompson.
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