City looks at building up its rainy day fund
A proposal to begin restoring the city's rainy day fund involves transferring millions of dollars from municipal departments to the reserve, but would still fall far short of its city council-imposed target.
A finance report calls to transfer $5.4 million from Winnipeg Transit's 2024 operating surplus, $1.8 million from animal services' 2024 surplus and $3.7 million of surplus capital funding for the Southwest Rapid Transitway to the financial stablization reserve.
If city council approves, the fund would be expected to grow to $36.4 million by the end of 2025, up from a 2025 budget projection of $18.6 million. Another $6.9 million of provincial growth funding is slated to top up the fund at the end of this year.
The changes will stop far short of restoring the fund to match six per cent of operating budget expenses, which would currently require $85.1 million.
On Wednesday, the mayor stressed the city will continue to work toward that goal.
'It's still important to have that target and we're moving in the right direction… the report from the finance team is a good report on starting to replenish that financial stabilization reserve,' said Mayor Scott Gillingham.
The reserve was greatly depleted during the pandemic and the city has struggled to restore it. The city says inflation and high snow-clearing costs also helped deplete it.
Gillingham said the city is not currently considering cuts to staff or services to help boost its financial stablization reserve, which is meant to help the city weather major hits to its budget, as it did during the peak of COVID-19.
'We're going to continue to need to do the work of fiscal discipline next year, while we still invest in core services and city services… At the same time, we've got to manage our funds well. So there's more work to do in 2026 and 2027 and beyond,' he said.
The finance report notes additional steps to replenish the fund will be part of next year's budget.
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
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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.
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Winnipeg Free Press
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'He was always in other people's homes visiting, and being at church was one of the worst places for him. He'd perform a service and be done for two or three days, barely able to get out of bed,' Angela says. Things became so dire that in 2013 they made the decision to uproot their young family and relocate to Manitoba, to live in a house situated on an acreage near Woodmore also owned by Jim's parents. Angela came to understand that both her in-laws had previously dealt with a condition similar to their son. 'They were actually one of the first farmers in the area to use chemical sprays, but as soon as they did, Jim's dad would get the shakes, and his mom, who passed away in 2019, would get really bad asthma and allergies,' she says, noting the six of them now live next door to Jim's dad, in a recently-built addition. 'So the land's been chemical-free almost the entire time, and has been certified organic since around 2000.' It took Jim close to a year until he started to feel more like himself. As soon as he was strong enough, he began lending his dad a hand tending the cows and growing feed, at which point a lightbulb went on in his head. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Jonah (left) and Jim Appleby walk through a field with holsteins, which will be calving soon. At the time, the elder Appleby had a contract with an Ontario firm, Organic Meadow, which was buying a good chunk of the milk he was turning out under the banner Sardius Holsteins. The remainder was being handled by the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, a non-profit organization responsible for selling milk from Manitoba dairy farms to different processors. Except when Organic Meadow severed the agreement without warning, Jim's first thought was why not market that share of their milk themselves? 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