City budgets include money for St. Vital
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2022 (501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
In December 2021, I voted in support of the City of Winnipeg’s capital and operating budgets for 2022.
Here are some of highlights that will affect the city as a whole, as well as St. Vital:
• The budget maintains property tax increases at 2.3 per cent, the eighth straight year at this level. Funds for road resurfacing increase to a record $160 million, more than five times the amount being spent when I was first elected in 2011. There are several streets scheduled for repaving in St. Vital, as well as the $45 million modernization of the St. Vital bridge connecting Dunkirk Drive and Osborne Street; with most of the work taking place in 2023-24.
• The city continues to increase its support for fire, police and ambulance services, though the annual increase for police is not as high as levels recorded prior to Mayor Bowman’s election. Transit service is being maintained at a level about 6 per cent lower than pre-COVID-19 service levels, owing to the drop in ridership during the pandemic. Once the pandemic is finally behind us, I look forward to an expanded role for Transit, and the city is planning a major purchase of electric buses in the next few years.
• I am very proud of a breakthrough in sewer funding, which I championed. The city’s efforts to reduce sewage spills into the rivers have been funded at $30 million per year for some years. I was pleased to win a $15 million per year increase for four years, a new $60 million environmental expenditure to improve the health of our rivers (and eventually Lake Winnipeg). There are still many years of work left on combined sewers, but this new funding is a step forward!
• The budget also funds a new recreational amenity for St. Vital — a new rubberized basketball court to celebrate Glenlawn Collegiate’s 100th anniversary in 2023. This court will be located on city property at Memorial Park, next to the school. The city funded a similar court at Dakota Collegiate in 2017, so I am pleased to “even the score” in the decades-old Dakota/Glenlawn rivalry.
• One project from last year’s budget has not yet broken ground is the new $2 million staff building/garage at St. Vital Park. This is the latest project of the more than $5 million invested in St. Vital Park over the past 10 years. There is federal support for the new building and I look forward to having Dan Vandal, MP for St. Boniface-St. Vital and my old council colleague, there for the groundbreaking.
Brian Mayes
St. Vital ward report
Brian Mayes is the city councillor for St. Vital.