Winnipeg funding bump welcome but new model needed: mayor

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This article was published 24/02/2023 (958 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s mayor is thankful a funding freeze to its provincial operating grant has ended, though he notes it won’t quite cover all of the capital city’s rising costs.

“I’m grateful, first of all… The City of Winnipeg has been forced to address inflationary pressures and other cost pressures over the last several years because the operating funding was all but frozen at 2016 levels,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said Friday, following the provincial government announcement.

Winnipeg will receive a $16.7-million boost to its base operating funding this year, an amount previously frozen at $121.2 million per year. That equates to a 14 per cent increase to baseline funding the province says will be maintained in future years.

However, Gillingham said, “Though the $16.7 million does provide a new base, it still is short of the cumulative inflationary rate to the City of Winnipeg between 2017 (and) 2022, which is 17.1 per cent. So it doesn’t quite make up for the inflationary pressures that the city has faced during the years that the funding was frozen.”

Some smaller Manitoba municipalities will get funding increases that range as high as 50 to 78 per cent this year.

While Gillingham acknowledged a “notable” gap between some of the increases, he noted the province has also committed funds to service CentrePort Canada lands and upgrade the north end sewage treatment plant, which will benefit Winnipeg.

The Manitoba government also reannounced Friday a one-time grant of $13 million to support Winnipeg Transit, which won’t factor into the baseline grant going forward.

That Transit cash was already accounted for in Winnipeg’s draft 2023 budget.

Gillingham said he expects the additional $16.7 million will be split between two key priorities.

“In the 2023 budget, we have a significant corporate efficiencies target of close to $36 million. We have a ‘rainy day’ fund that is currently well below (a council-mandated minimum). To ensure that we have money available in our rainy day fund and to ensure that we don’t have to reduce services throughout the year, I believe the $16.7 million needs to go towards those two areas primarily.”

The corporate efficiencies target reflects the amount city departments are tasked with saving by the end of this year to meet their respective budgets.

Gillingham said he would like to see at least an inflation-level increase in provincial funding each year in the future. He believes it is critical a new growth model be set.

“I really can’t stress enough the importance of establishing a new funding formula for the City of Winnipeg, one that is based on economic activity, revenues generated,” he said.

Gillingham said it could include the city receiving a share of the provincial sales tax or other revenue that grows with the economy.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga