Proposed city budget raises property taxes 5.95 per cent Adds police officers, maintains services By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 2:10 PM CST Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 Last Modified: 7:11 PM CST Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 Updates

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This article was published 11/12/2024 (270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Scott Gillingham says a decades-high property tax hike is the best option to balance the city’s next budget without cutting critical services.

The proposed 2025 budget revealed Wednesday would impose a 5.95 per cent property tax increase that would, among other things, enable the city to hire dozens of additional police officers.

The property tax increase hike translates to $121 annually for a sample single-family home assessed at $371,000.

The fiscal blueprint also proposes a trial change to the snowfall threshold that triggers clearing operations on residential streets in an effort to shave costs.

City committees will debate the budget and receive public feedback during a series of meetings in January, with council slated to cast a final vote on Jan. 29.

The mayor suggested there was little choice but to add to property tax bills.

“I don’t take lightly that… for the first time in decades, we have a tax increase in this amount, he said. “But I would rather do what I believe the citizens of Winnipeg need for the future than to try to protect myself and ourselves from public criticism. We need more revenue, full stop.”

The proposal marks the city’s highest one-year increase since the 1990s. The plan is to devote the revenue from two percentage points of the increase to road renewal, 1.5 points to general revenues and Winnipeg Transit operations and 2.45 points to a broader category that includes police, snow removal, transit and the community safety team now patrolling buses and bus stops.

Gillingham said he still intends to return to 3.5 per cent annual property tax hikes next year, which would match an election campaign promise. However, that goal will be affected by ongoing demands to fund major infrastructure projects, including the multibillion-dollar North End sewage treatment plant upgrade, he noted.

Much of the city’s spending next year will be used to hire new staff. No layoffs are proposed.

“Winnipeggers have been clear. They want us to invest in services for a growing city, not scale them back…. That’s why there are no cuts to services in this budget, no facilities will be closing,” said Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), council’s finance chair.

The plan includes hiring 36 new police officers — 18 in each of 2025 and 2026 — and 15 new community safety officers by 2027.

Overall, the city expects to add 115 new full-time staff positions next year, including 24 provincially funded firefighters, 10 more permit-issuing staff and 27 more transit employees.

Gillingham said hiring more police will help increase public safety, a priority Winnipeggers identified in pre-budget polls.

The pilot project increasing the snowfall amount threshold for clearing residential streets would begin next fall.

The current policy calls for plows to begin cleaning residential streets after an “inspection warrants a clearing operation,” usually following a 10-centimetre snowfall accumulation or equivalent drifting. The proposal changes it to “usually” begin after 15 cm.

The mayor stressed the city has not permanently changed its snow-clearing policy. He said early discussions with contractors suggested the change may not be that noticeable on many streets.

“Let’s run the pilot project through the winter of (2025-2026) and determine whether or not there’s any savings,” he said. “We want to provide good service to the citizens of Winnipeg. We also want to be (financially) responsible.”

Early estimates suggest the city could avoid one citywide residential snow-clearing operation each year with the change, which typically costs between $2.75 million and $5 million, he said.

The overall snow-clearing budget will increase by $5.3 million in 2025 to $45.7 million, which matches previous financial projections.

Reaction to the budget was mixed Wednesday, with some calling the property tax hike excessive.

“It’s going to be deeply difficult for homeowners and taxpayers to pay this much of a hike all at once,” said Gage Haubrich, prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “We hope that the city will look for ways to save money and, hopefully, get that number lower.”

By contrast, an anti-poverty advocate said while the city needs to raise taxes, it should have paired the proposal with a rebate to offset the cost for low-income residents.

“If only we could (levy this hike) in an equitable fashion,” said Kate Kehler, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

The head of the city’s largest union said the increase is needed to help maintain city services.

“Times are tough for everyone right now, they’re tough for municipalities,” said Gord Delbridge, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500.

Delbridge said he was relieved to see no plans for layoffs as new hires are desperately needed.

“We’re still working on skeleton crews and this is going to help. I think this is a step in the right direction,” he said. “Having a proper complement of staff there, I think, is going to improve the well-being of our members (and) maintain the quality services people expect.”

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The fiscal update is part of a 2024-2027 multi-year budget.

If approved, the city will use about $7.5 million in new provincial growth funding to boost its financial stabilization reserve (rainy-day fund), which is expected to cover an outstanding projected deficit of about $7 million from 2024.

The city expects to wipe out the balance in that fund by the end of this year, though Gillingham said work is underway to restore that reserve.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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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.