Financial projections for the City of Winnipeg and Manitoba are in disagreement.
Provincial Finance Minister Scott Fielding says Manitoba’s finances are doing very well, but Scott Gillingham of the Winnipeg finance committee says its books are in the red.
Fielding says he expects Manitoba’s economy to grow 4 percent in 2022 and is about “$360 million above what we had budgeted to end the year.” However, he says that on a global scale the province is “running with a deficit of about $1.1 billion.”
He says the government is listening to Manitobanese asking for “support during the pandemic to help us get through this,” but at the same time, Fielding says “we need to move the economy forward in a lot of different ways after the pandemic, which we’ve been looking at during our budget process that has been going on for the last month or month and a half.”
He says that “there is about $1.2 billion that we have set aside to address health, education and business support.”
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Meanwhile, Scott Gillingham says the city of Winnipeg is seeing a nearly $18 million shortfall, some of which has to do with snow removal, but “the biggest impact on the city’s finances is ridership.” .
“Passenger numbers continue to average 53 percent below normal levels. We will need the pandemic to subside so that people are more confident to get on the bus,” he says.
The most recent financial update, due before city councilors later this week, shows the shortfall caused by low ridership is forecast at $3.5 million, but “will be covered by retained earnings.”
Gillingham says low transit ridership is the “biggest impact of COVID-19.”
Winnipeg’s annual budget for snow removal is $35 million, but Gillingham says that budget doesn’t play a critical role in snow removal because “it’s not like we hit $35 million and stop snow removal.” According to the finance chairman, the city is approximately $4 million over budget for snow removal.
According to the January 18 meeting agenda, for the period between November 6, 2020 and December 17, 2021, “$47,488 remains owed” to the city for compliance with the public health order of a total of $104,644 in fines.
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