City delays 2019 budget release

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This article was published 14/01/2019 (1928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall is delaying the release of its 2019 budget by four weeks in the hopes the provincial government will reveal whether funding will be frozen at last year’s amount or reduced.

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman told reporters Tuesday city hall needs to know — in writing — how much funding support the province is prepared to provide and where it wants the money spent.

Bowman said he met with Premier Brian Pallister in December and asked for an assurance the amount of funding wouldn’t be cut after council approves the city’s budget.

Bowman said he wants to avoid a repeat of the confusion that’s bogged down city hall over the past two years as a result of mixed signals from the province.

“It’d be better to have certainty. We spend much of the year doing backflips trying to reconcile (provincial) accounts… We should know with greater certainty, in advance, what we’re dealing with so we can make more informed decisions for the benefit of the taxpayers we’re serving,” he said.

Bowman’s concerns over the province’s unwillingness to disclose its level of support to city hall was first reported by the Free Press in late December. At the time, the province would say only it was working on its budget.

At a session with reporters later Tuesday in Winnipeg, Municipal Relations Minister Jeff Wharton talked in circles around Bowman’s concerns, and offered no definitive answer as to when the financial information would be provided to city hall.

“We’re working with them, in collaboration with our other 136 municipalities across the province that are facing budget challenges as well, and we continue that dialogue and we’re looking forward to coming to a resolve very shortly,” Wharton said. “Winnipeg can look forward to a similar process going through 2019.”

City hall planned to table and pass its budget in February, but Bowman said now that won’t happen until March.

“It’d be better to have certainty. We spend much of the year doing backflips trying to reconcile (provincial) accounts… We should know with greater certainty, in advance, what we’re dealing with so we can make more informed decisions for the benefit of the taxpayers we’re serving.”–Mayor Brian Bowman

By law, the city must approve its operating and capital budget and set its mill rate by the end of March each year.

Bowman said the province’s timeline has made things more difficult for council, and complicating matters further, it has refused to tell city hall exactly where it wants its money spent before months-long, back-and-forth exchanges between the city and provincial officials have taken place.

“We had asked for the information… time will tell whether we get that clarity,” he said. “We asked for it in writing so we know, with greater certainty, when we’re building our budget what presumptions we should be building in. We’ll see if we get that information.”

Provincial funding to city hall has been frozen at 2016 levels, and Bowman said he didn’t ask Pallister to increase that amount, even though Manitoba is getting an additional $200 million from Ottawa in equalization payments.

“Winnipeggers appreciate the province of Manitoba is trying to bring their financial house into order. We would welcome additional funding but we’re not lobbying for (it),” Bowman said.

“We don’t want to see incremental cuts… If it is frozen, let us get confirmation of that. We’ll build our budget around that.

“If you ask me would we like new incremental additional funding, of course. I don’t think that’s realistic given the financial mess the province is dealing with. So we’re trying to work as collaboratively as possible.”–Bowman

“If you ask me would we like new incremental additional funding, of course. I don’t think that’s realistic given the financial mess the province is dealing with. So we’re trying to work as collaboratively as possible.”

— with files from Randall King

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca