Dan Vandal - City Councillor

City Councillor

Thompson administration

Vandal was elected to the Winnipeg City Council in the 1995 municipal election, winning an upset victory over incumbent councillor Evelyne Reese in the St. Boniface Ward. He was associated with the left-leaning Winnipeg in the '90s (WIN) group, which also included councillors Glen Murray and Lillian Thomas. In 1996, Vandal and Murray served on an ad hoc social services committee that held a series of public hearings on federal and provincial welfare cuts. He later saved the Pointe Hebert neighborhood in his ward from being turned into parkland, and was chosen to sit on the city's newly formed property and development committee in November 1997.

Vandal was a frequent opponent of Mayor Susan Thompson during his first term, and voted against several of Thompson's major initiatives. He opposed a 2% salary rollback for municipal employees in 1996, and later opposed the dissolution of the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation, which provided public housing. In 1997, he voted against a proposal to allow Sam Katz to build a new baseball stadium for the Goldeyes on a city-owned site at The Forks. Vandal's position was that the project was not financially viable, and that Katz would later return to the city for more money. The initiative nonetheless passed, and CanWest Global Park opened in 1999.

n February 1997, Vandal introduced a motion to create a municipal aboriginal affairs committee that would address issues of crime prevention and health. He later represented Winnipeg on an aboriginal subcommittee of the Manitoba Round Table on Environment and Economy.

Murray administration

The WIN organization was dissolved after the 1995 election. Vandal was re-elected in the 1998 municipal election as an independent with support from the Winnipeg Labour Council and the New Democratic Party, of which he was a member at the time. Glen Murray was elected Mayor of Winnipeg in this campaign, and appointed Vandal to his executive policy committee (i.e. the municipal cabinet) as chair of the protection and community services committee, which oversees Winnipeg's police, fire and hospital services. Vandal also led a task force charged with improving francophone services in the city, and was one of three council representatives on the board of Winnipeg Enterprises Corp.

Chair of the Protection and Community Services Committee

Murray's administration was often at odds with Gary Doer's provincial government in early 2000 over Winnipeg's ambulance services. Murray and Vandal argued that the city's share of the cost, about $2.5 million per year, should be assumed by the province. Doer initially disagreed, and the issue was unresolved for several months. In July 2000, the city and the province announced a deal with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority to provide five new ambulances and thirty new paramedics, with a ceiling on municipal costs. Vandal said that he was very pleased with the outcome.

Vandal promoted a plan to turn over some police responsibilities to civilian control in 1999, both to reduce costs and to free up more officers for front-line duty. He later supported a plan to introduce photo radar to catch speeding drivers, and endorsed a 2000 report that called for three fire stations to be closed to provide increased funding for paramedic services. Vandal argued that overall fire services would not be affected, as a smaller number of stations could oversee the city. Later in the year, he announced $445,000 in new money to combat a growing problem of arson.

Chair of the Property and Development Committee

Murray shuffled the executive policy committee on October 30, 2000, and moved Vandal to the chairmanship of Winnipeg's property and development committee. Soon after his appointment, he helped bring about the demolition of an abandoned Canada Packers site in his ward. The site had been regarded as an eyesore for many years, and was a frequent target for arsonists.

Vandal was chair of the property and development committee when Wal-Mart announced that it had found suitable land for a new establishment in north Winnipeg. This came two years after the company lost a political battle to construct a store in a separate area of the same neighbourhood. Vandal argued that this announcement validated council's decision to reject the initial application, which he said would have cost the city an extra $20 million.

Vandal was again endorsed by the Winnipeg Labour Council for the 2002 municipal election. No challengers came forward, and Vandal was returned to council by acclamation. Glen Murray was elected to a second term as mayor, and Vandal was kept as chair of the property and development committee after the election. In 2003, he helped oversee the beginnings of a new subdivision in Waverley West.

Aboriginal issues

Vandal said that he wanted to make aboriginal issues the top priority of his third term in office, and was subsequently the primary author of a 15-point strategy to combat poverty among Winnipeg's aboriginal community. The strategy was highlighted by a plan to create urban reserves, and to provide increased municipal support for aboriginal ventures. The final version of the Municipal Aboriginal Pathways strategy was officially unveiled in September 2003.

Other issues

Vandal believed that St. Boniface could be developed as a vibrant French Quarter for Winnipeg, and supported tax credits as a means of encouraging this outcome. He also supported a plan to increase the area's population, arguing that this would bring about improvements in other fields.

Vandal was the only member of Murray's cabinet to support a compromise with local anti-poverty groups to remove the most contentious aspects of an anti-panhandling by-law in 1999. He supported funding for downtown festivals as a means of boosting tourism, and helped approve $200,000 to this end in 2000. He was the first cabinet member to favour a total indoor smoking ban in public places, and supported Winnipeg's landmark smoking ban in 2002.

In May 2002, Vandal represented the mayor and council for the raising of a gay pride flag at city hall. He said that he hoped the flag would encourage a spirit of tolerance.

There were rumours that Vandal would run as a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada in a federal by-election in St. Boniface in 2002, but he declined to pursue the option. He later took part in a major Winnipeg protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Deputy Mayor

Vandal was promoted to Deputy Mayor of Winnipeg in a November 2003 cabinet shuffle, while remaining chair of the property and development committee and receiving additional responsibility for implementing the city's aboriginal strategy. Many pundits saw this as evidence that Murray was preparing Vandal to become his successor as mayor. In 2004, Vandal indicated his support for Prime Minister Paul Martin's plan to divert a portion of Canada's Goods and Services Tax revenue to municipal infrastructure.

In late 2003, Vandal requested that hockey legend and franchise owner Mario Lemieux consider bringing the Pittsburgh Penguins to Winnipeg. This was considered to be a longshot offer, and was not successful. Vandal later indicated that Winnipeg was contacted by a "Sun Belt" hockey franchise that was considering a move to Winnipeg, although this too never came to fruition. It was later revealed that the team in question was the Tampa Bay Lightning.

In late April 2004, Vandal was appointed to a steering committee on the development of Manitoba's capital region.