Fees in Winnipeg's draft budget amount to “taxes on the board,” advocate says

The City of Winnipeg's plan to raise fees for a number of public services means passing the cost on to as few people as possible, according to the public defender.

The city's draft budget for 2024, released Wednesday, proposes to raise overall fees by an average of about five percent, with further increases projected for the next three years.

This includes a new monthly 911 charge above regular water and sewer rates and a planned increase in transit rates.

While city officials say the increases are needed to keep up with inflation, the executive director of Winnipeg's Social Planning Council calls them “all taxes.”

“We're asking people who are already struggling to pay their phone bills to put in another one, two, three, four dollars a month if we're paying such high rates in Canada,” Keith Kehler told reporters after the project was announced. .

Kehler praised the city for keeping the property tax increase at 3.4% in the draft budget, but said he would like to see the fees on a sliding scale instead of a flat increase.

On transit, Kehler said she was happy to see the city's underserved Winnpass fee end this year, but said more work needs to be done to make public transit more affordable.

The budget calls for raising transit fares by 10 cents a year, instead of the five-cent annual increases of previous years.

Kehler called on the province and city to bring back the 50-50 transit funding deal that has been stalled since 2016.

The union representing the city's public transit workers said in a statement it wants funding from “all levels of government” to implement Winnipeg's new transit plan.

“What remains missing from the budget is dedicated operating funding to significantly improve transit services that directly impact the riding public,” said Chris Scott, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505.

The union praised $2.5 million over four years for a new transit safety program and $2.7 million to install safety shields for bus drivers, among other transit funding.

The city's capital budget, which sets infrastructure spending, will increase by $40 million to $607 million.

However, the road maintenance budget will decrease by $18 million to $138 million in 2024.

Chris Lorenz, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, said he understands the city is still on a “bargaining budget” facing tough economic conditions, but he's still disappointed by the decline.

“You see the deplorable condition of our streets, and if we put off the necessary investments in transportation until tomorrow or next year or the next decade, it's only going to get worse,” Lorenz said.

He said the city needs to solve its revenue problem.

He has called for a new chief economic development officer to look at how to grow the economy, as well as a new fiscal deal with the provincial government and “by extension, the federal government.”

“We don't have the revenues, we don't have access to the taxes on the growth … I understand that,” Lorenz said.

But “consecutive councils over several decades have said this, reports from the 1980s have said this. The model is broken. Fix it,” he said.

“You have the skills to lead a civilian government. You have an opportunity as provincial leaders, as a provincial government, to sit down at the table and solve the damn problem.”

Support for higher taxes: Taxpayers Federation

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation praised the city for its steady increase in property tax rates.

The average homeowner will pay $69 more in property taxes this year.

Gage Haubrich, the organization's Prairie director, said the tax rate is “very low” compared to some other large cities, but said it's still among the highest in the region.

Haubrich also said Winnipeggers should be on the lookout for higher fares in the future.

“Expenditures are still growing faster than the city's revenues,” he said. “So if the city wants to keep its promise of a lower tax rate, it will have to cut back on (these) spending increases.”

Haubrich said the city is right to raise the fees because it creates costs for the people who actually use the services.

The city's draft budget calls for a total of $1.36 billion in spending on public services in 2024. This is $81 million more than last year — an increase of 6.3 percent.