Latest news with #RossEadie
CTV News
12 hours ago
- Business
- 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.'
CTV News
12-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Demolition coming for empty fire damaged building on Main Street
The vacant burnt out building that the city is looking to demolish on Main Street. Uploaded June 11, 2025. (Jeff Keele/CTV News Winnipeg) The City of Winnipeg is looking for a contractor to do a wet demolition of a fire damaged building on Main Street. Wet demolition is a process to safely remove asbestos. A fire broke out at the vacant commercial building at 881 Main St. nearly four years ago. At the time, CTV News reported it was set for demolition. Beside the building is a burnt out church that caught fire twice in the last year. Coun. Ross Eadie said the city will pay for the work and then transfer the costs to the owner's property tax bill. 'The time limit is up. (The city) gave them a grace period and now they're putting out, and they're going to hire a company. The city will pay them to do a wet demolition,' said Eadie. It's a new policy, stemming from scores of problem properties plaguing inner-city neighbourhoods, where owners are dragging their feet on cleaning them up. A mountain of rubble, which once stood on the Sherbrooke Street lot, was one of the catalysts. The pile was left over for more than two years from an apartment building fire until the city stepped in, cleaned it up, and put the cost on the property tax bill.
Global News
25-04-2025
- Climate
- Global News
Winnipeggers urged to take part in giveaway, compost and yard waste initiatives
With spring weather here to stay and May just around the corner, Winnipeg officials are encouraging residents to 'think sustainably' by taking part in the city's compost program and participating in the upcoming spring giveaway weekend. On May 10 and 11, you can leave unwanted items at the curb on your front street and browse curbs in the community to potentially bring home some treasures of your own. If you're leaving something on the curb, you're encouraged to post a 'free' sign and to put away any items in your yard that aren't being included in the giveaway to avoid confusion. Items that are unsafe or potentially infested with bed bugs aren't OK to include, the city said, as well as toilets with a flush volume of 13 litres or more. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy City council's water, waste and environment chair Coun. Ross Eadie said the popular initiative is all about reducing the amount of trash the city generates. Story continues below advertisement 'We are committed to doing our part by helping residents keep more things out of the landfill,' Eadie said in a statement Friday. 'Any resident that participates in our yard waste collection service, giveaway weekend or picking up compost from the compost giveaway, (is) helping to reduce the impacts of climate change in our city.' Compost — made from grass clippings, leaves and twigs that Winnipeggers have left out for yard waste collections — is being given away May 9, 10 and 11 at 1901 Brady Rd., the Kilcona Dog Park, and the Summit Road closed landfill site. The catch? You'll need to bring your own shovels, containers and gloves, and there's a limit of 100 litres of compost per vehicle — or approximately five pails holding five gallons each. The yard waste collection begins for the season Monday for some residents and the following week for others — and will continue every two weeks until November on the same collection day as garbage and recycling. You can find out your yard waste collection days on the city's website.
CBC
26-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
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.
CBC
05-02-2025
- CBC
Manitoba government charges City of Winnipeg over Red River sewage spill
The Manitoba government has charged the city over a massive sewage spill that dumped hundreds of millions of litres of untreated wastewater into the Red River last year. It's been almost a year since a pipe carrying raw sewage under the river near the Fort Garry Bridge broke on Feb. 7, 2024. City crews had discovered problems with the pipe in November and were in the process of fixing it when the pipe failed. It took the city weeks to install a bypass system, leading to 230 million litres of sewage spilling into the river, making it one of the largest sewage spills in Winnipeg history. The province launched an investigation into the leak and, on Friday, filed charges against the city under the Environment Act. Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie, who serves a chair of the water and waste committee, said he expected the possibility the province could file charges under the Environment Act, which has happened following past spills, but the city would fight the charges in court. "I'm confident that the city will be able to provide reasoning and exactly what happened, and a judge will make a decision whether or not to fine us under that or not," Eadie said. The penalties could range from a fine of up to $500,000 for a first offence, up to $1 million for any subsequent offence. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham says the city is making big investments in its wastewater system. "We want to prevent diluted sewage or raw sewage going into our rivers," Gillingham said during a news conference on Monday. "We … continue to make significant investments in our wastewater assets, pipes to try to prevent that." Pollution from wastewater contributes to toxic algal blooms on Lake Winnipeg. Alexis Kanu with the Lake Winnipeg Foundation says she's glad the province is holding the city accountable. Downstream communities began noticing the damage from the spill last spring, she said. "It looked very much like what a combined sewer overflow event looks like on the riverbanks in the city," she said. "And unfortunately, I think that the consequences aren't necessarily over for that spill, because the pipe isn't completely repaired. And we're now coming up upon another spring melt." A permanent fix to the pipe is expected to cost about $20 million and be completed this year, a spokesperson for the water and waste department wrote in an email. Past spill charges The City has dealt with charges related to a sewage spill before. The province charged the city with three counts of violating its Environment Act licence in 2011, after an incident at the South End Sewage Treatment Plant. In a plea agreement, the City was asked to pay $10,000 in court costs. No court date has been set for the latest charges. The city is also facing lawsuits from a group of First Nations over the spill, which they say will have devastating downstream impacts on their communities. Those lawsuits are seeking a combined $6 billion dollars in damages. The largest sewage spill in the city's history occurred in 2002, when a mechanical failure at the North End Sewage Treatment Plant dumped 427 million litres into the river. City of Winnipeg faces charges over massive sewage spill into Red River 52 minutes ago Duration 1:57 It's been almost a year since a massive sewage spill into the Red River. Now the City of Winnipeg faces charges over the incident that dumped hundreds of millions of litres of waste into the waterway.
