Winnipeg's 2024 budget won't include much for new spending, mayor warns

Winnipeg's mayor is warning the city's next budget won't include much in the way of new spending on services or major construction projects.

High inflation and rising labour costs are challenging the city's ability to maintain existing services, Scott Gillingham said in an announcement he described as an attempt to manage public expectations ahead of the 2024 Winnipeg budget.

"It's not a tactic as much as just trying to be honest with the people of Winnipeg about where we're at financially as a city," Gillingham said outside his office on Wednesday.

"Most Winnipeggers, in their own personal budgets, are facing inflationary pressures and the increased cost of living the city. [The City of] Winnipeg is no different."

Gillingham, along with council finance chair Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) and the rest of council's budget working group, are in the midst of putting together a 2024 budget they expect to present to the public in January or February.

The budget has to be passed by council before the end of March.

Winnipeg's 2023 budget called for $1.23 billion worth of spending on city services. The city expects to overspend that budget by $3.1 million, based on financial data from the end of September.

Gillingham said the city is facing pressure to increase spending in 2024 because of rising operating costs, including higher snow-clearing charges, higher prices for water treatment chemicals and higher wages for unionized employees, as determined by collective bargaining agreements.

On the capital spending side, the mayor said the cost of new police vehicles has doubled and the projected cost of building  a new biosolids processing facility at the North End Water Pollution Centre — something the city must build under the terms of its provincial environmental licence — has nearly doubled from $553 million to more than $1 billion.

At the same time, the city must replenish a rainy-day fund that was nearly emptied during the pandemic.

Gillingham also said he remains committed to a campaign promise to limit the city's property tax hike to 3.5 per cent. The mayor said he won't break that commitment even though the city needs more revenue.

"I think it's important to do what we can as a city to control our costs, provide people value for the money — the tax money they're giving — but also bring in a tax increase that is more measured in recognition of the pressures that Winnipeggers are facing in their own household budgets," he said.

The mayor would not say whether any services will be cut, or whether any capital projects will be put off or scaled back.

"We don't know the final decisions that are being recommended because we're not there yet," he said.

"This is a challenging budget year and so people should expect that difficult decisions are going to have to be made."