Winnipeg faces largest property tax hike in 34 years, sources say

Posted on December 6, 2024 by Peggy

Winnipeg property owners are facing the largest municipal property tax hike in 34 years, CBC News has learned.

The preliminary version of the 2025 budget for the Manitoba capital calls for a 5.95 per cent property tax hike, according to city hall sources CBC is not naming because they are not authorized to divulge details of the 2025 city budget.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham and city council finance chair Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) are slated to present the first draft of that budget on Wednesday.

Gillingham, who ran for mayor in 2022 on a promise to limit annual property tax hikes to 3.5 per cent, has spent the past several weeks hinting at a larger increase.

Those hints included telling a group of business leaders in October the city can no longer afford big-ticket infrastructure projects and issuing several more recent warnings the city no longer generates enough revenue to properly fund core services such as road repairs and policing.

The city also commissioned a public opinion poll about property taxes in November.

The latest warnings about a hike arrived Thursday morning.

“The city is left to do more with less, stretching resources to meet the needs of a larger population,” Gillingham said Thursday in a pre-budget press release, in which he also stated Winnipeg has fewer employees now than a decade ago.

“This decline in staffing levels is evident across many areas, including public safety,” the mayor said.

Gillingham’s office declined to comment Thursday on the proposed 5.95 property tax increase. Budget details are still being finalized, said Colin Fast, a spokesperson for the mayor, in a statement.

“Winnipeggers expect us to invest in the services and infrastructure a modern city needs, while managing the challenges of inflation and rapid population growth,” Fast said.

A bald man with glasses wears a blue suit and stands at a podium. — Mayor Scott Gillingham declined to comment on the property tax hike, but a spokesperson said Winnipeggers expect city council to raise enough revenue to pay for services. (Travis Golby/CBC)

In November, Gillingham and Browaty warned Winnipeg is so short on revenue this year, it may need to backfill a year-end budget deficit with funds allocated for the 2025 budget.

The mayor also gently chided the provincial NDP government for falling short on requests from municipal leaders to provide cities, towns and rural municipalities with a slice of provincial revenue streams that increase every year, such as provincial sales taxes or the gasoline tax that is currently on hiatus.

A 5.95 per cent property tax hike would be the largest in Winnipeg since 1990, when a city council led by Bill Norrie approved an 8.45 per cent hike.

During the ensuing decades, annual tax hikes were lower, including no increases whatsoever from 1998 to 2011.

A man at his desk. — A 5.95 per cent municipal property tax hike would be the largest in Winnipeg since 1990, when a city council led by Bill Norrie, above, approved an 8.45 per cent hike. (CBC News Archives)

Based on 2024 property tax revenue of $746 million, a 5.95 per cent property tax increase would raise $44.4 million in additional revenue for the city.

For the sake of comparison, limiting the hike to 3.5 per cent for another year would raise an additional $26.1 million.

The city’s operating budget in 2025 is expected to be approximately $1.5 billion, according to 2024 budget projections.

A 5.95 per cent tax hike would put Winnipeg in line with other Canadian cities, most of which are struggling to generate enough revenue to cover their operating costs.

The City of Brandon hiked its taxes 9.4 per cent this year.

Beyond Manitoba, Toronto raised property taxes by 9.5 per cent this year.

For 2025, the City of Victoria is considering a 12.1 per cent property tax increase, Halifax is poised to raise its property taxes by 6.3 per cent and Edmonton city council voted Wednesday to raise property taxes next year by 6.1 per cent.