Winnipeg Minute: Issue 115

Winnipeg Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Winnipeg politics

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• The Standing Policy Committee on Community Services meets tomorrow at 9:30 am. One of the items on the agenda is a recommendation to dissolve the Animal Services Special Operating Agency and fold it back into the Community Services Department as a division, effective December 31st, 2026. The agency was set up in 2000 to run the service in a more business-like way and move it toward financial self-sustainability, but Administration acknowledges the autonomy and exemptions originally envisioned were never put into practice, and the service has continued to operate inside the City's normal administrative, procurement, and financial frameworks. Roughly 31% of the agency's operating budget still comes from tax support, and Administration says full self-sustainability was never achieved. The change would simplify financial reporting and cut duplicate administrative work, with daily operations, service levels, and funding to the Winnipeg Humane Society said to be unaffected. Dissolving the agency requires a two-thirds majority of Council.
  
  
• Also on the agenda tomorrow is a recommendation to enter a 10-year donation agreement with Firefighters Without Borders Canada to give away the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service's expired structural firefighting gear, including boots, helmets, gloves, and coveralls, along with surplus, non-confidential educational materials. Under National Fire Protection Association standards, the turnout gear must be retired no more than 10 years after it is manufactured, and Administration says it has no residual value and cannot be sold, so there is no financial impact to the City. The charity would distribute the gear to fire departments and emergency services in countries or regions with a demonstrated need, and would sign an agreement indemnifying the City from liability. The arrangement would replace a former practice of letting individuals keep old gear as spares or sending it to northern communities, which the service flagged as a liability.
  
  
• The Winnipeg Police Board has set four strategic priorities for Police Chief Gene Bowers, covering community safety, communications, member wellness, and innovation, while flagging that the Winnipeg Police Service now projects roughly a $4.5 million increase in required mill-rate support from the City for 2026. The service's first-quarter report forecasts revenues finishing $13.2 million above budget and expenses $17.8 million above budget, with most of the variance tied to provincially and federally funded programs that are largely offset by matching grant revenue. The projected shortfall is driven mainly by a $7-million expenditure-management savings target built into the 2026 budget that officials expect to only partially achieve, along with inflationary pressures on fleet insurance, vehicle leases, and equipment. Some of that is offset by savings from staff attrition and hiring delays. The Board, which adopted the priorities at an April committee meeting, will evaluate the Chief against the service's strategic plan and statistical trends.
  
  
• A Winnipeg Transit fare-enforcement program has denied roughly 11,700 rides to people who intended to board without paying since July 2025, according to a City report, with the City estimating it loses between $7 million and $10 million a year to fare evasion. Transit inspectors recorded 2,878 denied rides plus 1,083 "walkaways" between July 2025 and April 20th, while the City's community safety team recorded another 8,816 denied rides and 6,313 walkaways between January 1st and April 20th, though inspectors issued just 35 bylaw tickets over the period. Councillor Janice Lukes, Chair of the Public Works Committee, said the program has drawn strong feedback from drivers and riders, and emphasized that people who cannot pay are referred to support programs rather than simply turned away. The union representing bus drivers backed the crackdown on safety grounds, with President James Van Gerwen saying 90% of assaults on drivers are caused by people who did not pay, and counting 265 security incidents on buses in 2025 and 112 so far this year. Lukes also said the City is looking at roughly $15 million in full driver shields, with its share to be weighed in the 2027 budget.
  
  
• Winnipeg's Property and Development Committee will consider a motion on Thursday directing the public service to study the cost of acquiring 40 hectares of land in the north end of the city, between Pipeline Road and McPhillips Street and bounded by Storie Road and the Perimeter Highway, for a new regional park. The motion notes that no regional park has been built in Winnipeg since the 1960s, even though city policy calls for a new one for every 100,000 residents. If the committee approves, the public service would be required to return with an estimated price tag within 180 days. The proposal is at an early, exploratory stage, with no acquisition cost yet identified.

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