City Hall, 510 Main Street (CHRISD.CA FILE)
Winnipeg is raising property taxes 2.3 percent in 2015.
The city’s first budget under new Mayor Brian Bowman on Tuesday revealed Winnipeg’s spending plan for the next year, which allocates $103.3 million to infrastructure.
“The city is faced with a growing gap between revenue and the spending required to help maintain and modernize our growing, thriving city,” Bowman said. “In this budget environment, our challenge is to be able to dedicate record levels of funding to key priorities, like street renewal, while keeping tax increases just as low as possible.”
The property tax increase works out to $37 more per year or 10 cents more per day on the average home, the city said in selling the increase to residents.
The city will also introduce a 0.33 percent tax increase to fund the second phase of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor.
Highlights of the 2015 Winnipeg budget:
- $3.5 million to establish the first ever Transportation Management Centre (TMC) by the end of 2016. The TMC will become the primary source of traffic information through the use of social media, smartphones and traveller information boards.
- A decrease in the city’s business tax from 5.7 to 5.6 percent.
- Winnipeg police to see budget increase of $4.9 million for a total allocation of $264 million, while the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service sees a $10.5 million budget increase to $178.3 million.
- Increased funding to help reduce homelessness, increases to civic museums and arts funding, and maintaining the Aboriginal Youth Strategy. The city will also fund 100% biological larviciding to manage mosquito populations, a commitment to a downtown dog park, and financial support for Assiniboine Park.
- $1 million to the Innovation Capital Fund, meant to leverage the best ideas for improved efficiency, service delivery and responsiveness in city operations.
