You know things are in rough shape financially at city hall when councillors question whether they can afford to spend $200,000 or so a year to clean up needles, weapons and sharp objects in parks where children play.
If they can’t do that, what other core city services are about to fall by the wayside?
A city report released this week says that needles and weapons found in parks are a growing concern, especially in the core area. It provides costs options on how to deal with it (although it doesn’t recommend a specific strategy).
NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS FILES
Keeping parks clean and free of hazardous material is one of the most basic functions of a municipal government, Tom Brodbeck writes.
One option is to hire two crews of four people to monitor parks between April and October at a cost of $193,704 a year. The second option would add another crew of four between November and March at a total cost of $262,884.
It’s chump change in a $1.354-billion tax-supported operating budget.
Despite that, Coun. Cindy Gilroy, who will ask council for the funding because she believes the parks should be cleaned up, isn’t sure her colleagues will approve it.
“Kids are at play right where there’s needles, where there’s drug use and I think that is a huge concern…. You don’t want a kid picking up a machete. You don’t want kids picking up glass or playing in glass,” said Gilroy.
Whether council will agree to fund it is another matter, she said.
Coun. Vivian Santos, chairwoman of council’s community services committee, said she’s concerned about the price tag.
“Our budget is pretty stretched to the limit,” she said. “I think we have some competing priorities with other city councillors, when it comes to dealing with encampments and poverty.”
So she will follow the administration’s suggestion to accept the report “as information,” which means doing nothing at all.
Really? The city can’t find $262,884 to perform something as basic as cleaning up dangerous debris from parks? Is it really that strapped for cash?
Well, yes it is. Not to sound like a broken record, but I will repeat in this space for those who aren’t aware: the city has nearly drawn down its financial stabilization fund, which it has used to balance the books in recent years.
Once that money is gone, it’s anybody’s guess how the city will remain in the black. It is required by law to balance its tax-supported operating budget every year.
Maintaining parks, including keeping them clean and free of hazardous material, is one of the most basic functions of a municipal government. It’s right up there with clearing snow, repairing roads, policing and fighting fires. When a city openly contemplates not being able to perform those functions, it’s a sign of a serious problem.
This isn’t new. The city’s fiscal imbalance has been growing for years. Policymakers at city hall and the province have known for at least two decades that the city can’t continue to rely primarily on property tax revenue, which does not grow with the economy, to pay for the growing cost of running a city.
Wages rise and price inflation drives up city expenditures. Property tax revenues do not keep pace with those rising costs. It’s basic math.
The city and the province have said several times over the past year that they are discussing how to address this problem. There are some indications progress is being made to provide the city with some type of growth revenue, whether that’s a sales tax or some other tax that grows with the economy.
Sources say both sides are interested in finding a solution. It would require provincial approval since the city is only allowed to levy taxes authorized under provincial legislation.
However, it’s taking too long. City services are deteriorating, whether that’s in firefighting (where they are chronically short of front-line staff), infrastructure upkeep or recreational services. The city has been paring back services for years.
Park maintenance is one of them. The latest concern — that the city may not be able to afford to clean up needles from parks — is just another example.
Winnipeggers will continue to hear more stories like that until the city gets a new funding deal from the province.
It won’t just be a failure to remove needles and sharp objects from parks. The city will have to reduce services in many other areas — or raise property taxes far higher than it is now, which would disproportionately affect lower income people. It will have no choice.
tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
Tom Brodbeck
Columnist
Tom Brodbeck is a columnist with the Free Press and has over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.
Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press’s editing team reviews Tom’s columns before they are 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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