Here is the email I sent to Evan Duncan | Planning, Property & Development Chair | eduncan@winnipeg.ca after hearing his comments on CBC:

Hi Evan,

I saw your comments on the CBC interview about my event. Setting aside the buyer beware comments because that is not my area, I'd like to speak to you about common sense in permitting. The building was safe and is well maintained. It was completely within reason for the inspector to issue a conditional permit that the building close out the old permits within 30 days while allowing the event to proceed. Every other issue on the list was easy to manage in a single day—except for the fence on city property, which was up to the City.

Also, my argument is not that the permits didn't exist or that we didn't need to do a little bit of work as the event hosts, but that the system that got us to this horrible outcome is outdated, broken, and in need of fine tuning to make sure that next time I dump money into something, I'm not left with nothing to show for it ... or any event coordinator for that matter.

I find it extremely disingenuous that I have legitimate complaints and everyone at the City is writing them off as ... oh well, that's how it works. No, that's not how it works. That's how it doesn't work. Is the government in our city so broken that the politicians behind it can't see reason? I sure hope not.

I'm a reasonable person asking for reasonable change:
https://www.change.org/p/reform-the-city-of-winnipeg-s-broken-permitting-system

Jay

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It is ludicrous that the government is being so dismissive of an experienced event coordinator who has been through this process before, and knows where the flaws are. Fixing the issues at hand would be better for the City, small business, and the economy.

Let's see what Evan does ...