City increases help for low-income residents facing water and sewer bill spike

The City of Winnipeg has increased credits that help low-income people pay water and sewer bills amid this year’s hefty rate hike, though some say more help is still needed.

On April 1, a sewer rate hike took effect, raising the typical home’s sewer rate by $18.67 per month, or $168.03 more for the rest of 2025.

The city has since increased the maximum credits within its H2O Help to Others program, a joint initiative with the Salvation Army, which provides a one-time utility bill credit to low-income people who are struggling to pay the fees, a new report notes.

“As rates and fees change, the maximum credit amounts will be adjusted (in future years).”

Earlier this year, the top credit rose to $280 per one-person household, up from the previous $155, and to $580 per household of five or more, up from $400, confirmed city spokeswoman Terryn Shiells, in an email.

“As rates and fees change, the maximum credit amounts will be adjusted (in future years),” wrote Shiells.

The city report notes the higher fees are likely being noticed.

“Low-income individuals and families may be struggling more to pay their utility bill,” writes Yvette Cenerini, Winnipeg water and waste’s manager of customer engagement and strategic services.

While the city plans to make it easier for Winnipeggers to become eligible to apply for H2O program credits, steps to do so have yet to be released. The city is also still studying future options to help low-income people affected by recent garbage-collection fee hikes, the report notes.

The rate hike is part of a trio of substantial fee hikes Winnipeggers are facing this year. The city’s annual per-home garbage fee rose to $254 for this year (prorated to $190.50) from $93, also on April 1. And city council approved a 5.95 per cent property tax hike, the largest annual increase since the 1990s, which will cost the owners of a sample single-family home $121 more.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, who criticized the 2025 budget process for failing to reveal all of the fee hikes, said she’s glad the report acknowledges the challenge increased rates pose for low-income households.

However, she said the relief effort doesn’t go far enough.

“There is a real public frustration here with rate hikes and payment delays and so it does warrant co-ordinated (relief measures) with some urgency,” said Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry).

The councillor noted some residents are also struggling to get answers about the higher fees, due to delays in answering phone calls about their bills at water and waste’s utility billing centre. Some of the longest wait times reached approximately four hours in August, when the average wait was 42 minutes.

As of September, the average wait was just under 43 minutes, the city confirmed.

Rollins said she’s concerned many Winnipeggers don’t even know about the H2O program.

And she’d like to see an emergency fund that can reduce bills for people in need before they make payments.

“That lack of urgency, next steps… is my major criticism. There has to be a better customer service response,” she said.

“There is a real public frustration here with rate hikes and payment delays and so it does warrant co-ordinated (relief measures) with some urgency.”

In an email, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said the city sewer and garbage fee hikes are hurting low-income households that are “already squeezed by the affordability crisis.”

“It is positive that (the city) will expand the H2O Help for Others program, which should be easy and simple to access. An emergency fund is also needed to help low-income households,” wrote Molly McCracken, director of CCPA-Manitoba.

Coun. Ross Eadie, chairman of the water and waste committee, welcomed the increase to the credit program but agreed that more assistance is still needed.

“The program did and does need to be expanded. There (are) a lot of people in the inner city who are living in poverty.… You can’t live in a house without water, right?” said Eadie (Mynarski).

The councillor said he’d like to see the city offer “one-time forgiveness” of unexpectedly high utility bills, such as those that spike suddenly due to an undetected leak.

Eadie said affordability concerns appear set to increase next month, when he expects the water and waste department to propose additional sewer rate increases for 2026 and 2027.

“The new rates aren’t going to be pretty” since the city must pay for a major upgrade to the North End sewage treatment plant and needs more revenue to do so, he said.

That upgrade, which is needed to increase treatment capacity and greatly reduce pollution leaving the plant, is expected to cost more than $3 billion.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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