Winnipeg city staff working to lessen impact of 'severe' water, sewer rate hike: committee chair
Winnipeggers should brace themselves for what could be a significant increase to their water bills as the city plans to release next week its latest proposed water and sewer rates, the chair of city council's water and waste committee says.
The long-awaited report will be released on March 4, ahead of the committee meeting on March 10.
It comes while the city faces high costs for major capital projects, including a $3 billion North End sewage treatment plant, much of which remains unfunded.
"We're looking at trying to lower the impact on people who are having trouble to pay … because they know what they're proposing to deal with the North End plant is pretty financially severe for many people," said Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski).
Unless the city makes the upgrades, it risks running out of capacity to add new houses and businesses.
The third phase of the upgrades, which will remove the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen from waste water, was ordered by the provincial government as a condition of the city's licence. No funding has been set aside for that project.
"We have legal and regulatory requirements under our license for treatment of water, and that plant is like pretty well almost 100 years old," Eadie said.
"And we're … renewing a plant that will service for the next 100 years and actually be able to accommodate the growth that's happening in the city."
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.
The North End plant is just one megaproject on the city's list.
Replacing the city's combined sewer system is expected to cost another $2.2 billion. Council set a target date of 2045 to reach that goal, but city staff have said it could take until 2095 without additional government funding.
Along with the water and sewer rates, Winnipeggers are likely to learn what they will pay for waste collection. The city is rolling out a city-wide, curbside compost program, with a starting date in 2030.
City council also recently approved a property tax increase of 5.95 per cent, the highest since 1990.
Eadie says staff recognize the need to mitigate the impact of the increase in water and sewer rates.
"We're working at whatever method we can to lower the increases to the sewage rates because we know that our citizens, a lot of them … won't be able to pay their bills," he said.
One option staff are considering is expanding eligibility to the Help 2 Others (H2O) utility subsidy program for low-income households, administered by the Salvation Army.
Kristiana MacKenzie, the executive director of Weetamah, a subsidiary of the Salvation Army which runs the H2O program, said she expects to see demand for the program increase along with the increase in rates.
"The numbers are increasing everywhere with inflation and all of that," she said. "It's just becoming harder and harder to even just catch up."
The city centre committee passed a motion from Coun. Sherri Rollins ( Fort-Rouge, East Fort Garry) on Monday, calling on city staff to make sure the city takes into account the expected impact water and sewer rate increases will have on the availability of affordable housing.
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Winnipeg Free Press
6 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
After nearly five decades, crosswalk traffic is about to return to Winnipeg's Portage and Main
Since immigrating to Canada two weeks ago from Romania, Andrew Vlad and Vanessa Chira have been impressed by their newly adopted home of Winnipeg. But on Wednesday afternoon, the engaged tech workers stood at one corner of the city's most famous intersection, attempting for the first time to solve the riddle of crossing Portage Avenue and Main Street. Vlad shook his head, overwhelmed in confusion: he could see from 201 Portage Ave. at the northwest corner his ultimate destination — the CIBC branch on the other side of the street — but for a building so close, it was still so far out of reach. The pair of new Winnipeggers were experiencing a rite of circuitous passage that will soon be eliminated for all downtown pedestrians. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press New Winnipeg resident Andrew Vlad and his fiancé Vanessa Chirh laugh about the confusion over how to get across the street. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press New Winnipeg resident Andrew Vlad and his fiancé Vanessa Chirh laugh about the confusion over how to get across the street. The following morning, Mayor Scott Gillingham announced pedestrians will be able to legally traverse Portage and Main in all directions at controlled, street-level crosswalks in a matter of days. For the first time in 46 years, a pedestrian won't need to play chicken to cross at the juncture of this city's most iconic roads. 'June 27,' Gillingham told CBC during his monthly radio interview. 'There will be a media event, but as I've said all along: Portage and Main, it's important to Winnipeg's history, it's important to our future, but as I've said all along, at the end of the day, it's just an intersection.' In a literal sense, the mayor is correct, but that simple intersection — below grade, on the sidewalk and in downtown boardrooms with an eagle-eyed view of the thrum below — has been the source of intense multi-generational debate, taking on an almost mythic stature at the heart of city life while defining the tenor of civic conversation. As early as 1971, Jack Willis, the chairman of Metro Winnipeg, was advocating for the closure of the intersection to pedestrians, should the city begin construction on an underground walkway. Eight years before the intersection's eventual closure, legendary Winnipeg Tribune columnist Val Werier was already sounding the alarm — or honking the horn — considering the idea of barring pedestrians as a harbinger of a car-centric city to come. 'I have no quarrel with Mr. Willis' proposal that an underground connection is required, for it is the busiest corner in Winnipeg and traffic will be more hectic with new buildings planned. In addition, pedestrians need some protection for the weather,' wrote Werier, who died in 2014 after 70 years covering the city for the Tribune and Free Press. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Portage and Main will reopen to pedestrian traffic on June 27. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Portage and Main will reopen to pedestrian traffic on June 27. 'However, I would like to make a plea that instead of banning pedestrians, we ban the cars,' he continued. 'Instead of designing a city based on the needs of the car, we should think of people. Unless some dramatic action is taken in these terms, Winnipeg will be like other large centres where the car determines the downtown character. 'If anything is to be banned, it should be the cars,' he concluded. 'After all, people are far more interesting.' The decision to shut down sidewalk traffic was preceded by a protracted debate, with the city council's executive policy committee submitting a proposal for the total ban in September 1975, nearly four years before the underground circular concourse (officially called the Portage and Main Circus) opened in February 1979. While the change was considered a concession to the growing needs of vehicular traffic, it wasn't met with unanimous support. Among the loudest — and boldest — detractors were the participants of the burgeoning disability rights movement, who argued the erection of concrete barriers and the funnelling of pedestrians into underground channels were violations of their rights to an accessible downtown. In the winter of 1979, wheelchair users and their allies breached the barricades to bring traffic to a standstill in protest. 'Portage and Main is an iconic, symbolic place,' the late disability rights advocate Jim Derksen told this reporter in 2018, when the re-opening of the intersection was considered by plebiscite on the day of the civic election. 'If we don't take measures to update it according to our new values, in a sense we are recommitting the errors of the past,' added Derksen, a multiple barricade-skirting scofflaw. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press A person makes their way down the stairs to the escalator. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press A person makes their way down the stairs to the escalator. Former mayor Brian Bowman, who supported the idea of re-establishing pedestrian traffic at Portage and Main, vowed to honour the results of the plebiscite, which ultimately ended with a two-thirds majority opposing the reopening despite a vocal 'Vote Open' movement. (Analysis showed the bulk of that majority were commuters who didn't reside in the city's core). However, a city report soon found that the cost of repairing the underground's leaky membrane could cost $73 million and result in four to five years of traffic delays. Those anticipated costs were ultimately enough to tip Gillingham, who did not support opening the intersection in 2018 as a councillor, toward crossing the political aisle when it came to Portage and Main. It's a decision that will not only help to improve the city's image, but one which will encourage the development of a more accessible, welcoming downtown, says Melissa Graham, the executive director of the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities. 'It changes who that space is for,' Graham says. 'It won't just be for people who use cars. It will be for everybody.' 'This is good for pedestrians, it's good for businesses and it's good for the entire city,' says Kirby Cote, the executive director of Accessible Sport Connection Manitoba. 'As a city we should be celebrating our ability to be welcomed,' adds Cote, who is vision impaired and cycles through the area daily. 'We designed a downtown to move cars through it as fast as possible and that's not the reality of how it's used.' JAKE GIROUARD PHOTO A window cleaner's veiew of Portage and Main. JAKE GIROUARD PHOTO A window cleaner's veiew of Portage and Main. Window cleaning supervisor Don MacKinnon has for 15 years enjoyed an unparalleled vantage point of the intersection. At the end of their shift, cleaners often give in to the temptation to snap photographs from their platform outside the highest floors of the Richardson Building, which anchors the intersection's northeast corner at 1 Lombard Place. 'I never thought in my lifetime they'd open it up again,' says the 53-year-old swing stage supervisor, who was too young to remember crossing at the time of the closure. A longtime Jets fan, MacKinnon says he eagerly anticipates a Stanley Cup celebration at Portage and Main next season. For some downtown workers, the reopening is something they've been looking forward to for years. On her lunch break at her usual spot outside the Fairmont Hotel, just a stone's throw away from the intersection, Joanna Oznowicz reflected on how much better the downtown looked without the barricades. But she also thinks the reopening will make life safer for pedestrians, so long as drivers give them proper attention. 'I see people walking in the middle of the street before and I think, you're going to get killed,' says Oznowicz, 60. 'So I hope there will be caution on both sides as we get used to it.' Paralegal Cheri Harasym is less optimistic. 'Horrible idea,' she says. 'Too busy. There's a reason they've been closed for 46 years. The drivers are already looking for too many things, and that's just more distractions. (Around the office) we think people will end up getting hit, that there will be too many accidents.' Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Area office worker Cheri Harasym takes a break from work. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Area office worker Cheri Harasym takes a break from work. Harasym also expressed concern about the status of the underground circus, which she says downtown workers rely on for relief from the harsh winter weather when going from corner to corner. 'The long-term future of the concourse has not yet been determined,' says Julie Dooley, the city's acting manager of corporate communications. 'We have hired a consultant to assess any requirements of potentially decommissioning it.' For businesses operating in and around the underground concourse, there's been very little clarity as to when such a change might occur. 'The unknown is tough,' says Donavan Robinson, a co-owner of Pop CoLab, a corporate creative workshop business that opened two years ago in Lombard Place. 'I don't know that anyone really has an answer.' Still, Robinson says crossing at street level will help businesses such as his because pedestrians will have an easier time accessing the Portage and Main nexus as a whole. 'Right now people just get confused,' he adds. Outside the former Bank of Montreal building, now owned by the Manitoba Métis Federation, road crews were putting the finishing touches on the pedestrian island at the midway point of Main Street. Standing next to them, a young woman stared across to the southwest corner. Seeing no northbound traffic, she ran to the median and, a few moments later, arrived at the opposing corner. 'I had to run my errands,' reasoned Elsie Isiche. It was thrilling to watch. Come next Friday, it's an experience every pedestrian can legally enjoy for the first time since 1979. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Higher water bills sinking in for Winnipeg homeowners
The City of Winnipeg has upped its rates for water and sewer services and people are seeing the jump in their bills. CTV's Jeff Keele reports. Bernie Lemanski rarely waters his grass, and when he does, there's not much of a yard anyway. He lives with his brother and their water usage is low. 'The only thing you do is the dishwasher, washer and dryer and a shower,' said Lemanski. So it was sticker shock when he opened his quarterly water bill from the City of Winnipeg. 'I was just flabbergasted, in shock, like I couldn't believe it,' he said. Last quarter he paid $157 dollars and this quarter the bill is $269 dollars. 'Give me a break,' said Lemanski. 'What are they thinking?' Other homeowners are flooding Facebook with comments too, many asking the same question as Lemanski. 'I'd like to know why, why they increased it that high,' he said. Winnipeg's water and waste committee chair Ross Eadie says some people missed the discussion and debate around this issue at City Hall this year. 'It is catching people off guard,' said Eadie. In March, city council approved new sewer and water rate hikes to help fund the $3 billion north sewage treatment plant. There is also a new levy. A $23 per quarter fee was eliminated, but replaced with a higher $63 per quarter waste management fee, to pay for services like garbage, recycling, green carts, yard waste and damaged carts. It's a new utility model to take the heat off property tax bills. 'For the waste management we looked at here's what the cost is, we have contractors who pick up and collect your garbage and there's all kinds of costs related to it,' said Eadie. Things could have been worse. The mayor and council rejected a proposal to jack water and sewer rates by a $1,000 a year for a family of four. Still, Lemanski says the approved rates and fees are tough to swallow. 'A lot of single parents and they're on their own and they're living on a fixed income and they can't afford this kind of increase.'
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
One small step for pedestrians, one giant leap for Portage and Main
Pedestrians will legally cross Portage Avenue and Main Street before the end of next week. On Thursday, Mayor Scott Gillingham said the reopening date is set for June 27. 'After (more than) 45 years of debating whether it should be open or not, we've ended the debate. It's opening and I'm getting very positive feedback from people in the downtown, that live in downtown, that work in downtown, that own businesses in downtown. I'm getting positive comments from people who live in the suburbs as well,' said Gillingham. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS The Portage and Main intersection is expected to re-open June 27. At last check, the mayor said the project was within its current budget, which had been bumped up to $21.3 million from $13 million to cover its expedited schedule. The city had aimed to reopen the intersection to foot traffic by the time Winnipeg Transit unveils a new network, on June 29, that will change virtually all of its routes. 'It was very important, all along, that the pedestrian traffic be able to cross at Portage and Main and the construction related to the opening be completed before we make the change in our transit system,' said Gillingham. Pedestrian access at Portage and Main has not been allowed since 1979. Reopening it has been debated for decades, with 65 per cent of Winnipeggers voting against the idea in a non-binding 2018 plebiscite. Gillingham originally said he would follow the results of that vote but changed his mind after a city report estimated it would cost $73 million to repair the membrane to renovate the site's underground concourse. He then supported closing the underground, an idea the city is now studying, and reopening the intersection to pedestrians. 'My thinking has (changed). When I drive through the intersection now, these days, I can't help but think how welcoming … the space looks to invite people into all of the buildings,' said Gillingham. Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of public works, said the reopening project triggered few construction complaints. 'I hardly got any pushback on it. The actual (traffic) flow through Portage and Main, all things considered, went extremely well,' said Lukes. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. She said she hopes restoring pedestrian access will end heated debate over the issue. 'Many people have a passion for Portage and Main. It's a very significant hub in our city and… I think it's exciting (to open it),' she said. Opponents of the change argued it wasn't worth its cost and could create significant traffic delays, while supporters argue the change will help rejuvenate and better connect downtown. X: @joyanne_pursaga Joyanne PursagaReporter Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne. Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
