Winnipeg 2023 snow clearing $4.2M over budget despite mild start to season
City of Winnipeg considering changing practice that led to chronic under-budgeting
Despite a mild start to the winter season, the City of Winnipeg's snow clearing operations overshot their council-approved budget by $4.2 million last year.
That follows a pattern over at least the last decade of the city under-budgeting for snow removal and making up the difference from what's commonly called its rainy day fund.
This consistent shorting of the snow removal budget stems from a city practice of assuming a "low scenario" in terms of costs, which a city committee is set to consider changing at its first budget meeting on Friday.
"The reason for budgeting for the lower snowfall was in hopes that it wouldn't snow. But of course, it's just always a shortage of funding," said public works committee chair Coun. Janice Lukes.
It's too soon to know how the recent dump of snow — between five and seven centimetres in Winnipeg — will impact this year's budget, which began on the first day of the calendar year.
"We've got truck plows out, we've got graders out. Everyone's working on the … Priority 1 and Priority 2 roads, the sidewalks and the active transportation network," Lukes said.
Report calls for change
Last July, city administrators released a report recommending changing the way the city budgets for its snow removal operations, to assume an "average scenario" in terms of costs.
"Snow and ice control activities have traditionally been budgeted using the assumption of a 'low scenario' and have exceeded adopted budget for the last 10 consecutive years, depleting funds from the financial stabilization reserve fund," city streets manager Michael Cantor wrote in the report.
Last year, the city budget nearly $36.3 million for snow removal and ice control, but ended up spending $40.5 million. Under the average scenario, the city would have budgeted $54.2 million.
Lukes said she expects the committee to approve the change to the budget at its upcoming meeting.
"The goal is to budget so that we don't have to, at the end of the year, look to other sources to drain our rainy day fund to cover the snow removal."
In the past, the city has relied on its fiscal stabilization reserve fund to make up the difference between its adopted budget and the actual costs. That fund has been hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic and a particularly heavy snow season in early 2022, which pushed that year's snow costs to $87 million t $53 million over budget.
According to city standards, the rainy day fund should have six per cent of the total operating budget, which would mean the city should have a financial cushion of about $81.6 million. However, the current budget will leave the fund with just $18 million.
That has forced the city to change the way it budgets for snow removal.
Winnipeggers who spoke to CBC Manitoba agreed with the decision to budget more for snow removal.
"I would hope so, because it's really important for everyone to get to where they need to go safe and sound," said Rhovic Curatcha, a student at the University of Manitoba.
Karman Sran, also a student, said the city should base its budgets on the predictions of meteorologists.
"Allocating a little bit more money to a sudden or a quicker response might be a better idea than kind of just staying on the routine," she said.
If the council approves the changes, the snow-clearing budget would rise by about $3 million each year, reaching $54 million by 2027.
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