Mayor Scott Gillingham assured MHCA his office is committed to seeing tenders advertised and awarded earlier in the construction season.
The MHCA met with Gillingham and his senior staff and Coun. Janice Lukes March 7, to speak to concerns about the road renewal program budget forecasts, the increasing use of reserves once dedicated to the roads budget for other priorities and the tender process.
A substantial part of the meeting looked at the delays to date in tendering of Public Works street renewal projects. Indications are that a lot of the tenders will not be out by end of May and June, which is slow compared to past years.
“We are encouraged that, working with Coun. Lukes and with the Mayor’s support, our discussions with Public Works will see improvements, including accelerating the tenders for 2024,” MHCA President & CEO Chris Lorenc said. Lukes is Chair of the Public Works Committee of Council.
Of real assistance is an annual comparison of tendering awards, by date, Public Works prepared upon Lukes’s request.
It shows that the department expects 70% of the street renewal program will be awarded by the end of May. From 2020 to 2022, projects comprising more than 86% of the program were awarded by that time; in 2023, that figure was 77.8%
MHCA and senior board members noted the street renewal budget has fallen this year, to $138 million, down from 2023’s budget of $155 million. Council last year voted to allow funding for other road-related priorities – safety, active transportation, tree canopy restoration – to be funded out of the road renewal reserve, which is built through the 2% annual tax hike.
“We stressed to the Mayor that we understand the difficulty Council faces at budget time, finding sufficient revenues to meet all the demands for service,” Lorenc said. “But the road renewal reserve was never designed as a funding source that could meet expanded program priorities.”
The MHCA has recommended, in its budget presentations to City Hall, that it implement the funding model working group the Public Works Committee last year said it would create, to look at long-term solutions to financing road renewal.
MHCA also raised the issue of social procurement with Gillingham. The association is working with the Winnipeg Construction Association and social enterprise groups to provide feedback to the City of Winnipeg on its rollout on the social procurement action plan.
The plan will see social procurement requirements included in construction RFP and tenders. The City is piloting tenders this year, with the intent to make social procurement part of the public works contracts in 2025 and beyond.
