Moving into the new year, Coun. Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) laid out some of her goals for 2022.

“We have a lot of things to deal with,” Sharma said. “Northwest Winnipeg continues to grow. It’s one of the fastest growing areas of the city. Obviously, with growth comes new amenities that are needed and the regular issues we deal with across the city.”

First off, Sharma acknowledged the pandemic has made a “massive change” in the lives of all Winnipeggers, and it has also affected the operation of the city itself.

In light of that, Sharma said working closely with community organizations will continue to be important in 2022, as people have relied on community supports to keep themselves afloat during the pandemic.

Sharma said she’ll be supporting improvements to the city’s active transportation, including the Northwest Hydro Corridor Greenway, which will run parallel to McPhillips Street. Phase 1 will be approximately 2.4 kilometres from Leila Avenue to Church Avenue. Construction on that project is set to get underway this year, Sharma said.

One issue Sharma said she feels strongly about is regulating the growing of medical cannabis in residential areas.

“The growing of cannabis in neighbourhoods, there’s a lot of negative impacts that come along with that,” Sharma said.

Since cannabis was legalized, Sharma said there’s been a significant uptick in reports of home growers, some that Sharma said are growing “hundreds of plants.”

Neighbours have complained of strong odours coming from these residences, she said. Besides that, the operations can cause long-term damage to the houses and attract criminal activity, Sharma said. She’s calling for growers to be licensed in the future.

Sharma said the city needs to take the steps to deal with these side-effect issues of cannabis’ relatively fresh legalization.

“Winnipeg would be the first major Canadian municipality to actively take steps toward addressing these issues,” she said.