With rate hikes looming, Winnipeg councillors question taking money from water and waste budget
CBC
Some Winnipeg city councillors want the city to reconsider taking a dividend worth tens of millions of dollars out of the water and waste department's budget every year, suggesting the provincial utility regulator should review proposed rate increases.
A City of Winnipeg report on water and sewer rates expected later this year could lead to Winnipeggers paying significantly more for service, as the city looks for ways to pay for a number of big-budget projects.
"There's $40 million a year that we could be putting toward these water and sewer projects that's being collected from water and sewer ratepayers," St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes, who previously served as chair of the water and waste committee, told reporters at city hall Thursday.
The city takes a percentage of the total revenue from sewer and water rates, which is directed to the city's general revenue.
Mayes raised a motion Thursday calling for a review of that water and waste dividend, which was eight per cent of the water and waste department's revenue in 2011 but had climbed to 12 per cent by 2019.
Mayor Scott Gillingham, in his former role as finance chair, lowered it to 11 per cent and planned to phase it out completely, but those plans were put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
In 2024, the dividend amounted to $40 million.
Major capital projects on the water and waste department's agenda include upgrades to the North End Sewage Treatment Plant, currently pegged at $3 billion. The city has yet to find a way to pay for the second phase of the plant upgrades, meant to remove biosolids from waste water — a project initially budgeted at nearly $553 million, but now projected to be closer to $912 million.
It has no plans yet to fund the third and final nutrient removal phase.
Council has set a target date of 2045 to reach its goal of capturing 85 per cent of combined sewer overflows, by replacing the city's network that combines household waste and storm water with separate systems, at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion. But city staff have maintained that project could take until 2095 without funding from other levels of government.
In his motion, Mayes wrote that the city's policy requires a review of the dividend every four years, but no review has happened since 2019.
Mayes acknowledges it could take time for the city to phase out the dividend.
"That might be a big pill to swallow in one go around," he said, but "rather than doing nothing on some of these water and sewer projects because we don't have the money, let's remember we got $40 million that's going into general revenue from water and sewer."
Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt supported Mayes's motion.
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