Lukes calls for more funding from province and FBI – Winnipeg Free Press

A Winnipeg city councilor made a blunt plea for a new financing model for cities on Tuesday as officials from three governments broke ground on a new temporary fire hall in her neighbourhood.

Count. Janice Lukes, who represents the fast-growing Waverley West neighborhood, urged members of the provincial and federal governments to help Winnipeg secure sustainable and predictable funding.

“As you know, the southwest corner of Winnipeg has been the fastest growing area in the city over the past decade…The sad fact is that we should have been here five years ago, and have been doing this for a while. fire hall,” Lukes said.

The temporary fire hall is just one of many critical pieces of infrastructure — along with roads, sewage treatment plants and recreational facilities — that the city is expected to fund to support population growth, despite claiming a very small slice of the tax dollar pie, Lukes said . .

“The allocation of one tax dollar is shocking. It’s 10 cents for the city of Winnipeg, 40 cents for the province of Manitoba and 50 cents for the federal government… The current tax sharing, the financing model for cities, absolutely will not support Canada’s current immigration policy and that does not bode well for the future . All of us should be concerned about that,” Lukes said.

The councilor repeatedly emphasized that immigration is essential to Canada’s growth and workforce, while noting that cities urgently need more resources to provide the infrastructure to support it.

“I love growth, I love immigration, but when it’s happening this fast… I don’t think the current funding model is fair,” Lukes said.

The councilor made his comments as the city, province and federal government marked the start of construction of a $6.8 million temporary fire hall on Eaglewood Dr. 130. The temporary station is expected to open in November 2024, while a permanent station is expected to open. in 2026 at Bison Drive and Ruth Crossing.

The federal government provided $1.3 million for the hall, while the province committed $3.4 million to add 40 new firefighters to staff the hall this year.

When asked about Lukes’ funding request and the many councilors and mayors who have submitted similar requests to her, Prime Minister Wab Kinew told reporters his government is willing to work together on the issue.

“We’ll just start talking to the city council. We have an excellent working relationship with Mayor Gillingham and we will move forward from there,” said Kinew.

In the recently released budget, the provincial government promised to work with cities on a new multi-year financing model.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he agrees with much of what Lukes said, noting he has made similar requests.

“Coun. Lukes expressed the frustrations I think some congregations have faced. I’ve said similar things. I was very pleased to see the Prime Minister announce in this budget his commitment to a dialogue with the City of Winnipeg… to establish a new funding formula,” said Gillingham.

The mayor had asked the province to provide some kind of ‘growth financing’ where revenues would increase alongside economic activity. For example, he noted that this could be provided through a portion of the provincial sales tax.

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Joyanne Pursaga
News reporter

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Joyanne loves telling the stories of this city, especially when politics are involved. Joyanne became a town hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2020.

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