Documents show city underspent sidewalk clearing budget

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Recent financial disclosures appear to undermine city hall’s claim that all efforts were made to clean up following the snow storms that buried the city in December and January.

While city officials revealed last week they were forced to overspend the street snow clearing budget by $11 million, city officials later released numbers that suggest it had underspent on the sidewalk budget.

In response to a series of questions from the Free Press, a senior civic official conceded the city only spent $2.8 million on sidewalk snow and ice control – 27 per cent less than the $3.855 million city council had authorized for sidewalk snow clearing in 2016.

“Where did that 27 per cent go?” said Coun. Janice Lukes, the former chairwoman of the public works department.

Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) said there is too much confusion surrounding the budget information but added, ultimately, it’s Mayor Brian Bowman’s responsibility to ensure important information is released in a clear and understandable manner.

“This is just another example of the root of the problem with the budget,” Lukes said. “There is such a lack of transparency in what a line item really translates to – it is impossible to know what the truth really is.”

Mechanical breakdowns to blame: union official

Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt said he’s puzzled as to why sidewalks on major streets remain plugged with snow, adding the city’s refusal to explain clearly how it’s spending taxpayer dollars is frustrating.

“There is still a section of Regent Avenue, between Plessis and Rougeau, where the sidewalks hadn’t been plowed as of Saturday afternoon,” Wyatt said.

Street maintenance manager Jim Berezowsky told reporters last week that civic crews continue to work around the clock clearing sidewalks, with all city-owned equipment dispersed across the city but he conceded many portions of the city’s regional sidewalks remained uncleared and were not cleared until Wednesday of last week, two weeks after the Christmas Day storm that dumped more than 30 centimetres of snow on Winnipeg. Environment Canada reported a total of 69 centimetres of snow fell on Winnipeg during the month of December.

While Berezowsky said sidewalk clearing efforts were hobbled as a result of the mountains of boulevard snow piles created by street plows dealing with the back-to-back snow storms, a senior union official told the Free Press the city isn’t able to marshal all of its sidewalk clearing equipment because of mechanical breakdowns that relegate several machines into the garage for repairs every day.

Despite a request from the Free Press for an explanation for any variation from budget-approved snow clearing costs, city officials did not provide it. Felicia Wiltshire, the city’s director of customer service and communications, said additional information might be provided at Monday’s finance committee meeting, where officials will be detailing the city’s projected 2016 operating deficit.

Sidewalk money spent on IT, administration

Coun. Marty Morantz, chairman of council’s public works committee, initially said Sunday that he didn’t believe the public works department had underspent its sidewalk snow clearing budget and didn’t want to comment because he wasn’t familiar with the situation.

In an email exchange, Wiltshire denied that the city had underspent sidewalk snow clearing and, despite what the budget documents state, said the $2.8 million is part of the total $39 million spent on snow removal in 2016.

Wiltshire said that where the budget document states the city had allocated $3.855 million for sidewalk snow and ice removal in 2016, most of that money was actually spent on IT and other administrative costs and only a portion was spent on snow clearing.

Morantz, meanwhile, had no other comments on the city’s snow clearing costs.

Wiltshire said she hoped finance officials will be able to clear up the misunderstanding around the budget numbers and what the budget document actually means at Monday’s meeting.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

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