Bid to slash bus garage’s cost advances

The city appears poised to take a new route to building a Winnipeg Transit garage, cutting $105 million off the project’s soaring tab.

Council’s public works committee voted Thursday to reduce the plan’s scope to fit an original 2019 budget of $200 million instead of the latest estimate of $305 million.

A cheaper, revised plan for the new north garage would be expected at a January finance committee meeting.

The cost-cutting decision, which requires full council approval, isn’t the city’s alone to make because Winnipeg previously secured an infrastructure agreement with the provincial and federal governments to fund the garage. That deal called for $73 million from Ottawa and $61 million from the province.

“Any changes in the project scope approved by council will also require discussion and agreement with the provincial and federal governments. An updated project scope will form the basis on which the detailed design for the new garage is built,” Jesse Crowder, manager of Transit’s asset management office, wrote in a report.

Crowder said in an interview after the vote that the city has notified the other two governments of the potential changes and doesn’t expect either would challenge a decision to reduce the scope of the project.

“We’ve been in conversation with them … and agencies across the country are facing these kind of fiscal problems (funding transit), and they’re aware of it. We don’t have any indication … that they would pull funding or anything like that,” he said.

Coun. Janice Lukes, the committee’s chairwoman, said the city can’t afford the new project price, with only $150 million of borrowing room left under its debt strategy. Lukes (Waverley West) said the city also can’t afford an option Transit recommended, which would defer $25 million of the work and take on $80 million of debt to cover the shortfall.

“We saw that there are a lot of risks if we don’t do it but the risks if we do use up half our debt ceiling, I think, are greater,” Lukes said.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he wants to stick to the original budget.

“The costs of all the projects are going up, and so we, I think, need to be responsible, as levels of government to make sure that we can build within the available funding we have,” he said.

In an email, Housing Infrastructure and Communities Canada said the government can’t share details of discussions with its partners about project funding.

In a written statement, a provincial spokesman said the city can request scope changes for the project without impacting funding commitments, as long as the provincial and federal governments approve.

“It’s important to remember the City of Winnipeg is still finalizing the design phase, which will determine the overall costing of the project,” the statement said.

Public works committee members were warned cutting back elements of the new garage to fit the original $200-million budget could have significant effects on transit operations and service.

Such cuts could lead Transit to remove all maintenance bays, reduce bus storage space, reduce the size of the facility, increase operating costs to maintain buses and delay the purchase of electric buses, a city report notes.

Transit director Greg Ewankiw noted during the committee meeting that a storage space reduction could delay plans to buy more 60-foot buses.

“It impacts our procurement plan. It also impacts the ridership (capacity) that we’re able to carry,” he said.

The committee also ordered a staff report on how the changes could affect the 25-year Winnipeg Transit Master Plan.

Lukes said she’s worried about the impact of reducing the north garage budget but is optimistic other levels of governments will support transit in the future.

“Every city in Canada is feeling the transit (cost) crunch like we are … (And) I think that all parties understand the need for transit,” she said.

The infrastructure agreement calls for the project to be completed by Dec. 31, 2027.

Council is expected to cast the final vote on the matter Sept. 26.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

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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