Bowman’s budget receives range of reactions

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This article was published 21/11/2017 (2495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reaction to city hall’s proposed 2018 budget covered the extremes, from congratulations to condemnation.

The chamber of commerce and a road construction lobby congratulated Mayor Brian Bowman on what they described, on balance, as a positive budget.

The leaders of several civic unions, along with councillors not part of Bowman’s inner circle, were strongly critical of many of the budget decisions.

The provincial cabinet minister responsible for municipal funding deflected any criticism, repeating the government’s position that it provides a “generous” amount of funding to city hall, even though the funding amount has been frozen at 2016 levels.

“It was definitely not your typical pre-election budget. It was balanced, responsible and aligned with citizens’ priorities,” said Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. “I’d have to say this is one of the better budgets I’ve seen.”

Remillard said he was impressed with the city’s ability to hold its overall spending at 1.2 per cent, particularly in light of the provincial government’s decision to freeze its funding at 2016 levels.

Remillard also singled out the decrease in the business tax rate and the increase to threshold amount where businesses are exempt from paying the tax.

Municipal Affairs Minister Jeff Wharton said the province would not accept any responsibility for city hall’s financial situation or the cuts to the transit service.

“The City of Winnipeg has some of the most generous unconditional operating funding of any Canadian city,” Wharton told reporters, adding the city has to determine how best to spend the funds the province provides it. “They know what the best priorities are for the city of Winnipeg.”

Coun. Ross Eadie said instead of decreasing the business tax rate, which will result in a projected revenue loss of $10 million, the budget should have maintained the business tax rate at the current level and redirected the $10 million to Transit.

Eadie said business leaders applauding the cut in the business tax rate are failing to realize they are hurting their own pocket books.

“Business has a stake to make sure their workers can get to work and to make sure that people can actually go out and make the purchases for groceries and clothing,” Eadie said. “If they can’t afford transit and they can’t get transit, they’re not going to be able to get to your shop and make their purchases.”

Eadie said he plans to move a motion on council to eliminate the business tax rate and re-direct the savings to Transit.

John Callahan, international vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said he’s concerned cuts to transit routes will only further undermine the transit service.

“We aren’t meeting the demands of the public now. Any (further) reduction is ludicrous,” Callahan said.

Echoing Eadie’s concerns, Callahan said the cuts to the transit will have the greatest impact on low-income earners who are the bus riders who depend on service most often in the evenings and weekends.

“They’re sure beating up on the poor,” Callahan said. “If transit isn’t’ there, you can’t go to work. It’s not like this is a luxury. This is something a lot of folks depend on. We’ve always pushed for increased service on evening and weekends because that’s when its most needed.”

Coun. Janice Lukes is critical of the $5 million cut to the recreation department and the budget’s failure to commit any funds for the construction of a much-needed regional recreational complex in southwest Winnipeg.

Lukes said Ottawa is prepared to provide municipalities with additional funding in 2018 for recreational infrastructure projects, adding Winnipeg is missing out on those funds.

Chris Lorenc, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and a former councillor, said he was pleased to see the budget provide a record amount of spending on road renewal despite the freeze on provincial funding.

“There have been some difficult choices made,” Lorenc said of the budget. “The increases into the core infrastructure programs are reasonable. The projections going forward are reasonable. Would we like them to be higher, yes, but there is only so much the city can do within the confines of its fiscal restrictions which it finds itself.”

The president of the city’s largest union said he was disappointed with city hall’s continued reliance on vacancy management to generate cost savings.

Gord Delbridge, president of CUPE Local 500, said the budget’s plan to save $21.9 million through vacancy management — the city’s practise of delaying hiring as a way to save money — is resulting in service cuts to all departments.

Delbridge said the proposal to spend extra funds to remove diseased elm trees this year was the result of vacancy management in the forestry division in previous years.

“We’re basically working skeleton crews right now,” in all departments, Delbridge said. “We just don’t have the means to have any further reductions in services and staffing levels.”

The president of the police union said the city can’t afford to restrict the police budget to a 1.2 per cent increase.

Maurice “Moe” Sabourin, president of the Winnipeg Police Association, said the police service data shows that for the first six months of 2017, incidents of violent crime had increased 7 per cent, property crimes increased 12 per cent, and the total number of police incidents had increased 10 per cent.

“The criminals of Winnipeg are not planning their activities based on the rate of inflation or the movement of a price index,” Sabourin said in a statement released after the budget was tabled. “Council should give the Winnipeg Police Service the resources to meet the challenge of ever-increasing calls for service. The budget for 2017 has already created a number of difficulties, including reductions in training, and the 2018 plan appears to be more of the same.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca