City’s budget process gets C grade from think tank

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This article was published 05/12/2017 (2874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city’s budget and budgeting process may have flunked last year, but it has received a C this year.

The C.D. Howe Institute, a prominent think tank, gave the city of Winnipeg the average mark on Tuesday as part of its annual grading of the budget process of the country’s major municipalities.

Last year, the city received an F.

The report looks at several areas, including whether a municipality’s budget presents key totals prominently or buries them; whether they present the budget on a timely basis before the start of the fiscal year; and whether the same accounting basis is used for both the budget and financial reports.

But, whether it was last year’s F or this year’s C, the city’s response is the same: “The City of Winnipeg follows accepted professional practices and guidelines, including generally following budgeting standards prescribed by the Government Finance Officers Association,” David Driedger, the city’s manager of corporate relations, said in a statement.

The city’s consolidated financial statements are done in accordance with accounting principles issued by the Public Sector Accounting Board and include an opinion by the city’s auditors, KPMG, he said.

According to the C.D. Howe report, Calgary went in the opposite direction of Winnipeg. The Alberta city plunged from last year’s mark of A-minus to a D-plus this year to join Ontario’s Durham Region at the bottom of the ratings list.

Peel Region in Ontario and Surrey, B.C. received the highest marks of A-plus for approving their budgets early and clearly presenting the overall fiscal footprint of their total spending at the beginning of their budget documents, the C.D. Howe Institute said.