Winnipeg city hall braces for “difficult” budget Tuesday

WINNIPEG – Winnipeggers will find out Tuesday just how much property taxes will go up and what city services could be cut.

“Will everyone be happy with everything that is in there? Of course not,” said Jeff Browaty, the councillor for North Kildonan. “It’s challenging to accommodate everything as well as to keep taxes affordable for Winnipeggers so we will see where that lands tomorrow.”

The city’s operating and capital budgets will be unveiled Tuesday. The mayor has said in previous interviews this budget was difficult and tough. The finance committee chair agrees.

“The thing that I am most concerned about is the city does have a structural deficit,” said Marty Morantz. “What that means is that it does not have sufficient revenues to meet its operational expenditures.”

Morantz would not hint at what ways the city will come up with the money for city services.

“You have to see when the budget comes out with regards to efficiencies and revenues,” Morantz said. “I think there will be things in the budget that Winnipeggers will have concerns about but there will also really great things in the budget that I think in the long term are investments that will move the city forward in a very positive way.”

When campaigning for mayor, Brian Bowman had promised not to cut emergency services. The police account for the largest part of the budget.

“The price of policing, ambulance, fire services which are core services have grown greater than the rate of inflation so that puts pressure on everything else the city offers,” said Browaty.

Jenny Gerbasi is not on the mayor’s Executive Policy Committee and has not been included in the budget process as much as she would have liked. “I certainly do have a lot of trepidation and that’s what happens when you don’t have the information.”

She is worried about what services could suffer when the budget is released.

“We have some serious challenges and that is what concerns me because it would be really painful for services if it is taken out of the hide of the departments that always get hit such as community services,  planning, public works and those are the departments once again because we can’t touch the police, the emergency services,” Gerbasi said.

During the election Bowman had promised to keep property tax increases in line with the rate of inflation.

Last year the city raised taxes 2.95 per cent. Of that, one per cent went to a dedicated account for local road repairs and one per cent went to a regional street renewal fund.