Provincial bureaucrat recommended to become Winnipeg's new top civil servant

Cameron MacLean · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 17, 2025 4:05 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

Mayor Scott Gillingham's interior ellipse has nominated a provincial nationalist servant with a inheritance successful engineering to service arsenic the City of Winnipeg's caller main administrative officer.

The enforcement argumentation committee unanimously approved a question naming Joseph Dunford to pb the civilian service. The information inactive needs assembly approval.

Dunford presently serves arsenic the lawman curate of nationalist work transportation for the state of Manitoba.

He has much than 20 years of acquisition arsenic a nonrecreational engineer, having worked successful Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, a quality merchandise from the mayor's bureau said. He has worked connected large-scale projects, including a $5-billion infirmary successful Halifax.

If approved, Dunford would statesman enactment connected Aug. 4.

He would regenerate erstwhile CAO Michael Jack, who resigned successful June 2024, little than a week aft an audit of the city's workforce. 

Jack had travel nether occurrence from immoderate assembly members for his absorption of the city's administration, aft the audit recovered the metropolis lacked capable processes for show reviews and measuring advancement toward cardinal goals.

Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt was censured by council, aft helium refused to apologize pursuing an morals commissioner study that recovered his criticisms of Jack amounted to harassment. 

In a quality release, Gillingham thanked interim CAO Sherwood Armbruster, who has served successful the relation since past June.