City of Winnipeg to phase out email requests to 311

Winnipeggers who want to tell the city about a toppled stop sign, request bulky waste pickup or get information about adopting a pet from animal services will no longer be able to submit those kind of requests to 311 via email, as of next year.

The City of Winnipeg's central intake system for service requests will phase out its email option in 2024, replacing it with a single standardized form for all departments.

"Email tends to be rather inefficient for submitting requests, especially when it comes to service requests," said Felicia Wiltshire, the city's customer service director. 

During an extended period this spring, it was taking 311 up to two weeks to respond to initial emails, Wiltshire said.

"And then we would send [questions] back to the resident, and if it takes the resident 24 hours, 48 hours [to reply] … you can see how that becomes a really protracted back-and-forth experience."

Currently, residents can contact 311 by email, phone or social media.

The new form will ask for all the information departments need to respond to a request, Wiltshire said.

The city has already developed forms for submitting requests directly to some departments, like bylaw enforcement. Those will be replaced by the new standardized form, which will be processed by 311 instead of going to departments directly.

There is no firm date for the end of 311 email requests, but it will come some time in 2024, Wiltshire said.

"It's not going to be just an immediate shut off of the email system. We will do a gradual transfer over."

311 phone wait times down

Wiltshire revealed the plan to eliminate the email option as part of a report on efforts to reduce 311 wait times at council's executive policy committee on Tuesday, its last meeting of the year.

Mayor Scott Gillingham campaigned on a promise to cut phone wait times.

In 2023, council budgeted more than $871,000 toward that effort. 

That money was used to hire six more full-time staff, increase 311's overtime budget and add more phone lines.

So far, wait times have come down from an average of 11 minutes in 2021 and 2022 to just under six minutes as of October.

Gillingham wants to get that down to under three minutes.

"Part of enhancing customer service is about simplifying the processes for residents, but also to make sure that our 311 service is structured in such a way that 311 operators and departmental staff can respond more quickly," he told reporters after the meeting.

The service has struggled with recruitment, and the report notes that approximately $125,000 will remain unspent this year due to challenges hiring call operators.

Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) says she's pleased wait times are down, but raised concerns over what happens after the city receives a request.

Departments all use different computer systems, which means 311 often doesn't know when a request has been dealt with.

"So there's a lot of work on the back end that needs to be done. But I'm really pleased with the commitment that the mayor's made, that council has made to continue funding this until we have better improvements on it."

A new citizen portal will hopefully address this concern, Wiltshire said. 

Residents currently need multiple passwords for things like paying property taxes or water and waste bills online.

The new system will consolidate all of that into a single account, which will also include all requests sent to 311.

That new system will take at least a couple years to develop.

Hookah ban delayed, garbage collection studied

The mayor's inner circle also delayed a decision on banning hookah lounges in the city at its Tuesday meeting.

The community services committee had previously voted unanimously to ask city staff to draft a bylaw banning the use of the water pipes inside businesses and on their patios.

Gillingham said he wanted more information about how provincial regulations could affect a potential city ban. That report will come back to the executive policy committee in January.

The committee also amended a motion from the water and waste committee calling for the city to take back some of the garbage collection services it currently contracts out.

Last month, the water and waste committee passed a motion to do that when it renews its contracts in 2027.

Gillingham brought forward an amending motion, adding a request for a report on the costs of bringing garbage collection in-house.

The motion also asks city staff to report on how an in-house crew could help address other issues, like downtown waste and recycling collection, bulky waste, illegal dumping and homeless encampments.

The committee also passed a motion granting a request from True North Real Estate Development to extend the time it has to decide whether to buy the downtown Portage Place mall by six more months.

The motions on garbage collection and the time extension both move on to council for final approval next week.