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At least three police cars were present at the under-construction Fairmont Winnipeg Thursday evening.

The nature of the response was unclear, but officers were guiding traffic outside of the construction zone at 2 Lombard Place while the response was underway. At 6:50 p.m., traffic was flowing normally.

Security on site provided no information on the response, but an individual working behind site fencing told the Free Press there’d be no comment from anyone on site as to why police were on scene at this time.

An SUV with a Government of Manitoba logo on its side was also present alongside personnel from Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health. However, it’s unknown if it’s connected to the police response.

The powers that be in Winnipeg have pushed for cheap property taxes for decades. As a result, the city doesn’t have enough money to balance the books, let alone maintain infrastructure, deliver services and respond to challenges like homelessness and the toxic drug crisis.

Winnipeg’s fiscal problem stems from decades of keeping property-tax increases below inflation and relying on inadequate revenues to fund a growing city. The result? Today, Winnipeg spends less money per person on city services than it did in 2001.

A look at the books at city hall is stark. Winnipeg has run a deficit almost every year since the COVID-19 pandemic because of climate-change-driven heavy ice and snowstorms, higher fuel costs and increased policing overtime. During this time, city council tried to cut and freeze public service spending where it could; as a result, community services have been cut to the bone.

Departments responsible for what makes a city a good place to live have been squeezed. Since 1999, community services — responsible for libraries, recreation, swimming lessons and aspects of Winnipeg’s poverty-reduction work — has 149 fewer staff positions, an 18 per cent reduction, even as the city’s population has grown 35 per cent, or by 220,000 people.