MHCA asks industry to send message to Winnipeg City Hall

There is real risk Winnipeggers will see their local street repair budget gutted again in 2020 and City Council needs to hear that’s a bad idea, MHCA President Chris Lorenc says.

“We are working to speak with everyone on the budget working group at City Hall, all the councilors who now are tasked with reviewing the administration’s recommendations for Budget 2020,” Lorenc said.

“Those recommendations called for $36 million in cuts, total, over the next five years to the local and regional street renewal program. The $4 million in cuts to the local street repair budget recommended for this year come on the heels of cuts in 2019 – Winnipeg can’t continue to ignore crumbling residential streets like this.”

Lorenc noted that of particular concern is that the local street budget was to benefit from $20-million additional in federal gas-tax revenues, sent to the City in 2019. Now, however, there is discussion of using it for other purposes.

“Our streets are a mess, especially our residential streets. We think Winnipeggers deserve better.”

The MHCA has asked members to send emails or call city councilors and the mayor to deliver the message that our core infrastructure, our economy and this vital service to ratepayers deserve higher priority – tell them not to cut the street renewal program.

In 2013 and 2014, a dedicated, annual property tax of 2% total was adopted by City Council expressly to bring our streets to good condition. Lorenc noted that now the City of Winnipeg is rewriting the plan, which now is asking Winnipeggers to accept that there will always be some bad streets.

Further, council last year voted to allow bridge work to draw from the revenues raised by the 2% yearly tax hike.

“We think that’s breaking the deal. City Council needs to be told to stop cutting and to go back to the drawing board to bolster the plan to fix our roads.”

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