‘I don’t think it’s going to do the trick’

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This article was published 25/11/2024 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A five-year, $62-million funding plan for municipalities announced Monday has left some in rural leadership frustrated.

The funds will be provided by creating the One Manitoba Growth Revenue Fund, Premier Wab Kinew announced Monday at the annual fall convention of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

About $12.4 million in additional revenue handed out yearly across Manitoba on a per-capita basis means some rural municipalities, such as Portage la Prairie, are left with a disappointingly small piece of the pie, said Garth Asham, a councillor for the RM.

“I don’t think it’s good enough, I don’t think it’s going to do the trick,” he said from the RBC Convention Centre.

“We were obviously hoping for more; maybe they’ll free up a little more money yet, but right now, it’s disappointing, as far as we’re concerned.”

Infrastructure in Portage la Prairie is suffering and the announcement won’t put enough money in the coffers to do the necessary repairs, he said.

“We manage our books pretty well, but we still need to do better,” he said. “We need to enhance our lives of our ratepayers better than we do.”

The NDP government’s budget for 2024 included $221 million in unconditional funding to all municipalities, including a two per cent boost to the municipal operating grant, to help deal with rising cost pressures.

The new revenue fund will be in addition to the operating grant. The combined increase to municipal funding for the next year is equivalent to 7.6 per cent, or $16.8 million, according a release from the province.

Kinew pointed to those numbers in response to questions about whether the funding is adequate.

“The provincial government is coming forward with something that’s never been done before — predictability and an escalator increase every single year on the operating grants for municipal leaders to decide how they can meet your needs,” he said. “That’s a first, that’s never happened before.”

Trevor King, the Progressive Conservative critic for municipal and northern relations, said the $16.8 million is the equivalent of the NDP cuts to the Building Sustainable Communities ($12.5M) and the Green Teams ($4M) programs this year.

“This financial shell game is not what the premier promised, nor what municipalities expected,” King (Lakeside) said in a statement. “Once again, the Kinew government is showing that it is more interested in headlines than providing the help municipalities need.”

Meanwhile, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham repeated his plea to the province to consider a new municipal funding framework that would grow as the city’s economy does, such as designating a portion of collected funds from the PST or income tax.

The issues Winnipeg and rural municipalities are facing may be at different scales, but are similar in nature and could benefit from improved municipal support, he said.

“We’re all facing similar challenges. Our communities are growing, but we don’t have the financial resources to keep up with the infrastructure needs for that growth,” he said. “We need a new municipal growth framework.”

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said it was positive that the announcement was made while municipalities are planning their budgets and will be able to take the funding, set to begin Jan. 1, into account.

“We could all utilize more money, everyone knows that,” he said. “We have all this infrastructure deficit, we have all these things we need to do right now…. We’ll continue to have discussions, because we do need a lot more, and it’s not just the provincial government; for infrastructure and things like that and housing, it’s the federal government, as well.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca