From potholes to broken signs: Winnipeg launches ‘neighbourhood action teams’

The city of Winnipeg unveiled their new Neighbourhood Action Teams Monday morning. A program, aimed at solving everyday maintenance issues throughout the city. Kurt Black reports

By News Staff

Posted June 16, 2025 1:04 pm.

Last Updated June 16, 2025 7:26 pm.

Six-person crews will spend a month this summer and fall in the Winnipeg neighbourhoods in most need of city services.

The “neighbourhood action teams” will tackle issues like potholes, displaced sidewalks, leaning and damaged signs, debris, hazardous tree branches, and uneven boulevard surfaces.

“I see these neighbourhood action team members as the building blocks for returning community pride, togetherness, and dialogue back to Winnipeg,” said Jim Berezowsky, the director of Public Works for the City of Winnipeg.

The City of Winnipeg says those are the tasks that generate the most service requests through 311.

“What this group will do is communicate those priorities, identify when the target time frame is, and feed that back to the community so there is no further requirements of that additional 311 response request,” said Berezowsky.

The three teams will rotate through all 15 wards from June through October, focusing on local priorities as they move from ward to ward.

City of Winnipeg officials are calling it “one of the most significant changes in decades” to how the city delivers frontline services.

The “neighbourhood action teams” was an election campaign promise from Mayor Scott Gillingham in 2022. Three years later, they are a reality.

“Neighbourhood action teams are a smarter, faster way to deliver city services,” said Mayor Gillingham. “They’re designed to meet residents where they live and fix the kinds of issues that pile up on a neighbourhood’s to-do list, all in one visit.”

Adding, “Instead of sending just one crew to do one job, then a different crew rolling up a couple weeks later to do a different job, these teams handle it all, efficiently, thoroughly, and with an eye to quality.”

The program officially launched Monday, but the city says the teams were already active this winter, clearing snow around transit stops, filling potholes and completing sign repairs.