Triple-digit garbage fee hike on horizon Proposal gets executive policy committee approval By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 6:39 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 18, 2025

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This article was published 18/03/2025 (539 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers look set to pay a hefty garbage fee hike this year, after an initial plan to reduce it was trashed.

On Tuesday, Mayor Scott Gillingham revealed a motion Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) previously promised to introduce to reduce the fee hike has now been ruled out.

Instead, council’s executive policy committee approved an initial proposal to raise the annual per-home garbage fee from $93 to $254 in 2025 (prorated to $190.50, as it would take effect April 1).

When this year’s property tax hike and sewer rate increase are added to that levy, the combined cost increase for a sample home will be $386.50 a year, if council approves.

The massive garbage fee hike is meant to cover the entire cost of garbage collection, ending the city’s long-standing practice of devoting millions of dollars from property tax revenues to help pay for it.

Eadie publicly pledged to raise a motion that would complete that funding shift for garbage service over 10 years to reduce the sudden blow of the steeper rate hikes meant to achieve that goal in three years.

However, the mayor said that plan did not prove financially feasible.

“We worked with our department for several days to look at different ways that … could be done. At the end of the day, what we discovered is that any savings would be very negligible and, if you spread those repayments (to cover the service cost) out over 10 years, ultimately, the ratepayers end up paying more (overall),” said Gillingham.

The mayor said that means there would be “no financial advantage” to making the change.

“The very unfortunate thing is all of these (fees) are coming together at one point.”–Scott Gillingham

In an email, the mayor’s office said ratepayers would pay $17 less per year in fees over a decade to implement the funding switch more slowly. That’s because the city would need to borrow money and raise the overall amount charged to cover $5.2 million of interest as well, said spokesman Colin Fast.

The mayor acknowledged the fees add up to a substantial cost increase for key city services.

“It’s a significant change, there’s no doubt. The very unfortunate thing is all of these (fees) are coming together at one point,” said Gillingham.

The mayor linked the sudden hike in fees to the $3-billion north end sewage treatment plant upgrade and delays in funding it.

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“Had funding been secured five, 10, 15 years ago, we would be in a completely different position right now as a council,” he said.

Eadie, council’s water and waste chairman, had repeatedly said he would raise a motion to reduce the garbage fee since March 4. On Tuesday, he agreed the change shouldn’t be made.

“The interest cost was (millions of) dollars, which is adding on to an already substantial fee increase to pay it off. So, I decided not to move a motion. It’s just too much money,” said Eadie.

EPC did pass the motion with a future affordability measure added by the water and waste committee. If council approves, the municipal government will ask the province to change Winnipeg’s charter so it can levy garbage rates that vary by each property’s value.

Eadie stressed that change is needed to help the lowest income households — who are most likely to have the lowest priced homes — avoid taking “desperate” measures to pay their bills.

It’s not yet clear if the mayor will support that measure in a final council decision, since he spoke against it prior to Tuesday’s vote, deeming it too similar to using property taxes to pay for garbage service.

The proposed garbage fee hike adds to a 5.95 per cent property tax hike, the largest annual increase since the 1990s, which will cost owners of a sample single-family home $121 more. A third proposal, which EPC also supported, would raise the “typical” home’s sewer rate by $18.67 per month, starting April 1, which would add up to $168.03 for the rest of 2025.

An initial proposal for a multi-year sewer hike that would add $1,000 to the typical household’s annual bill by 2027 has been ruled out for now.

City council will cast the final vote on sewer rates and garbage fees on March 27.

A retired homeowner said the sudden shift from paying for garbage service through tax dollars to a set fee is jarring.

“They just passed an increase off to the water and sewer utility … from what used to be funded by property tax,” said Terry Cooper, who worked in accounting and auditing. “And they didn’t reduce our taxes accordingly … they went the other way (with a tax hike).”

Cooper said he can adjust his budget to cover the cost but worries lower income seniors can’t afford to do so.

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“On the low end of the (income) scale, I think it’s totally unaffordable. If someone was totally dependent on base government-like pensions, I don’t know how they would be able to afford that kind of increase,” he said.

Gage Haubrich, prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said it’s “extremely disappointing” to see the city cancel plans to reduce the garbage fee hike, just as other municipal costs soar higher.

“It’s going to hit a lot of taxpayers hard for sure. If anyone asked you if you had an extra $380 laying around to send more money to the city, not a lot of people are going to say they have that amount of disposable income,” said Haubrich.

He urged the city to cut spending to balance its budget instead.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.