Trudeau asked to provide more money for sewage-treatment plant, transit during meeting with Winnipeg mayor

The prime minister's multi-stop visit in Winnipeg on Wednesday included a late-day meeting with Scott Gillingham, where the mayor says he cited inflationary pressures among the reasons why the city needs more financial help from the federal government for three major capital projects.

"We as a city, the ratepayers of Winnipeg, cannot bear the total cost of the increases related to inflation," Gillingham told CBC News after his meeting with Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau was in Manitoba to promote his government's new budget. The visit saw him meet with students in Winnipeg to tout highlights from the budget, including measures to build a clean economy.

Trudeau celebrated Passover with members of the Jewish community, chatted with trade workers and apprentices and met with Gillingham at the end of it all.

Gillingham said he started out by thanking Trudeau for the latest budget identifying Winnipeg as the site for a headquarters for the new Canada Water Agency.

Then the pair discussed a range of capital funding projects in Winnipeg that receive funds from all three levels of government — including improvements to the North End Water Pollution Control Centre, the electrification of Winnipeg Transit's fleet and the north transit garage replacement.

The north transit garage was identified in the Winnipeg Transit Master Plan in 2021 as one of six projects the city said it would apply for federal funding for.

Last summer, the federal, provincial and city governments pledged to jointly commit $509 million to the electrification of Winnipeg Transit's fleet.

And the total cost associated with upgrades to the sewage-treatment plant have risen to $2.2 billion and is likely to go up further, according to city financial status reports and past budget documents.

"That project is really experiencing significant increases in the cost because of inflation and also the transit-related projects," Gillingham said after his meeting with Trudeau.

"The specific ask is that the federal government in their role as one of the funders would look at increasing their funding over and above what they've done. It's the same request I'm making of the province of Manitoba as well."

The Liberals currently have three sitting MPs from Manitoba and a byelection must be called by June 11 for the Winnipeg South Centre riding after the death in December of Liberal MP Jim Carr.

Trudeau must also call a byelection by Aug. 27 in the southern Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar, previously held by Conservative MP Candice Bergen, who resigned on Feb. 28.

Trudeau was last in Winnipeg at the beginning of March for a child care announcement and Liberal Party fundraising event.