New 911 charge among higher fees in City of Winnipeg preliminary budget
Water and waste fee, transit fares increasing more than usual as city tries to keep up with inflation
A new monthly 911 fee, higher-than-usual increases for garbage collection and transit, and the first hike to the accommodation tax on hotels are among the increases in a City of Winnipeg preliminary budget that aims to hold the line on property tax hikes.
Fees will go up an average of five per cent in 2024, with another five per cent fee increase predicted for 2025, and 2.5 per cent in each of the following two years.
The increases are needed to catch up with inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic, city officials said as the public got its first look at the preliminary budget when it was presented to the city's executive policy committee on Wednesday.
"We tried in this budget to balance those competing realities — that there are people right now who are struggling," Mayor Scott Gillingham told reporters in a news conference, alongside finance committee chair Jeff Browaty.
The average Winnipeg homeowner can expect to pay $69 more in property taxes this year, as the city maintains its 3.5 per cent annual property tax increase. Frontage levies remain flat, in keeping with Mayor Scott Gillingham's campaign promise to limit the increase to one year.
Starting July 1, the city will add a $1 fee to each monthly phone bill registered to a Winnipeg address, to fund improvements to the city's 911 service. That change is subject to provincial approval.
The federal government is requiring cities to upgrade their technology, Gillingham said.
"It's not just a matter of calling anymore. You can actually upload videos or pictures directly to officers. So that's going to take a different system."
The city is also asking its police and fire paramedic services to explore consolidating their 911 call centres to increase efficiency.
Kate Kehler, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, worries about the impact the new and increased fees could have on people with low incomes.
"We're asking people who are already struggling to pay a phone bill, to put maybe $1, $2, $3, $4 more per month, when in Canada we pay such high rates already," she told reporters.
Waste collection fees will increase $10.54 per household, to $80, in 2024. The city also plans to introduce a new waste collection fee for multi-unit buildings, starting at $46 per unit, in 2025. The one-year delay is intended to allow landlords time to consider the change and how they might pass it on to renters.
Transit fares, accommodation tax increase
Transit fares will increase 10 cents each year, a larger increase than the five-cent increases in past years. The city will freeze the cost of the low-income Winnpass in 2024.
Some of the money from the increased fares will go toward paying for upgrades to the transit fare payment system to replace the current Peggo cards. The system has been criticized for how long it takes for fares paid online to become available on the cards.
"Peggo has been a disappointment … to be generous to the product, since the beginning," said Browaty.
"The new technology that we're going to be implementing, people have to get new cards … but it's going to be, you can load it from home. At the very least you're able to use it right away."
The accommodation tax will increase by one percentage point to six per cent, the first time it has gone up since it was introduced in 2008. That money will be diverted to general operations for city beautification efforts.
Michael Juce, president and CEO of the Manitoba Hotel Association, said hotels are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We were the first in and the last out of the pandemic, so it's a really tough time to be increasing taxes on our sector," he said in an interview.
Juce supported the city adding $500,000 to the special event marketing fund, but criticized the decision to use part of the money raised by the tax to fund initiatives that are not directly related to attracting more visitors to Winnipeg.
"It moves it a little bit further away from that first stated goal — of increasing visitation and events — and makes that line less clear."
Longer, more consistent library hours
The City of Winnipeg plans to spend $81 million more on services in 2024 than it did last year.
That's a 6.3 per cent increase over 2023, while the inflation rate in Winnipeg was 4.4 per cent.
Some of that funding increase — $5.9 million — will go toward libraries, paying for more staff, increased hours and more consistency across branches.
The city will add nine new full-time library staff, as well as five full-time positions that were removed from the 2023 budget due to recruitment challenges.
Libraries will no longer close mid-week, Browaty said. Libraries will be open 10 per cent longer from Labour Day to the May long weekend, and 14 per cent longer during the summer.
The city is also putting $5 million this year toward construction of a new northwest library.
On capital projects, the city expects to spend $607 million, up from $567 million in 2023.
Pool closures
The budget also includes a proposal to replace or decommission 20 outdoor wading pools and open 10 new splash pads, at a cost of about $20 million.
The Eldon Ross indoor pool and Happyland and Windsor Park outdoor pools would also be closed in the coming years.
The city also plans to review attendance and operational costs at the Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool over the next four years.
After two years of budget shortfalls that drained the city's rainy day funds, finance officials projected last year that the city would finish the year with a balanced budget. The last update before the release of the 2024 budget, however, projected a deficit of $7.1 million for 2023.
The new budget will leave the fiscal stabilization reserve with $18 million.
The Winnipeg Police Service budget gets a $7 million increase to $333 million, while the fire-paramedic budget increases $8 million to $234 million.
The city's road budget decreases $18 million to $138 million. A federally funded accelerated regional road renewal program ended last year.
This is the second budget with Gillingham as mayor, and the first in the next four-year budget cycle.
The city's standing policy committees will hold public hearings on the budget in a series of meetings beginning March 1. Council will meet to consider the budget on March 20.
2024 Winnipeg budget highlights
- Operating budget (spending on city services): $1.36 billion, up $81 million from 2023. That's a 6.3 per cent hike.
- Capital budget (tax-supported spending on infrastructure and equipment): $607 million, up $40 million from 2023.
- Property taxes: Property taxes rise 3.5 per cent, the same as in 2023. The average homeowner will pay $69 more this year. This will raise an additional $32 million for the city. The frontage levy remains the same.
- Total projected property tax haul in 2024: $745 million.
- Accommodation (hotel) tax: Up one percentage point, with the additional revenue flowing into general revenue for city beautification instead of all the money going to the destination marketing reserve.
- Transit fares: Going up 10 cents a year instead of a nickel every Jan. 1 until 2027. Adult fares for this year are $3.25.
- New monthly 911 fee: $1 per active phone line, starting July 1.
- Water & sewer rate hikes: 3.8 per cent this year.
- Business tax: Rate remains 4.84 per cent.
- General fee increases: Five per cent, with some exceptions.
- Waste diversion fee: $80 per household, up from $69.46 in 2023.
- Police budget: $333 million, up $7 million from 2023.
- Fire-paramedic budget: $234 million, up $8 million from 2023.
- Road repair budget: $138 million, down $18 million from 2023.
- Snow-clearing budget: $41 million, up $5 million from 2023
- St. Vital Bridge rehabilitation (Osborne to Dunkirk crossing): $23 million this year to finish work that started last year.
- CentrePort south water and sewer pipes: $13 million.
- New northwest library: $5 million to build this year.
- Fiscal stabilization reserve (rainy day fund): Will end 2024 at $18 million, up from $9 million.
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With files from Bartley Kives