On March 2, the City tabled its capital and operating budgets for 2016. The Local has been reviewing the documents to identify any service reductions and will be raising these issues during the budget review process at City Hall. Some of the highlights include:
- Property-tax hike of 2.33 per cent (0.33% earmarked for Southwest Rapid Transit way and 2% to fix roads);
- $20.9 million in vacancy management ($3.2 million increase over 2015);
- Business tax reduction from 5.6 to 5.3 per cent;
- $11.1 million in savings through departmental "efficiencies";
- Increase to various city fees by $8 million, including more than 100 new surcharges
"This budget suggests savings in the millions through vacancy management," said Local 500 President, Gord Delbridge. "This is simply an erosion of the City's front line-services that will ultimately impair the City's ability to deliver needed programs and services."
The budget also calls for $1 million in the innovation capital fund (formerly known as the Alternate Service Delivery Initiative) to invest in new ideas for improved efficiency and service delivery.
"As we've said to Council many times before, we believe public services provided by municipal governments directly, are the most cost efficient method of providing services," said Delbridge. "In our view, this allocation of $1 million dollars would be far better spent in looking at bringing services back in-house to improve accountability to the taxpayer as well as reliable services."
As in previous years, CUPE Local 500 would like to see leadership from the city on the following:
- An immediate end to the vacancy management program - to ensure adequate staffing levels in city services;
- A commitment to reject the contracting out or privatization of any municipal service - to ensure accountable and quality public service delivery;
- A commitment to bringing previously contracted-out services back in-house;
- Maintaining or improving the level of city services currently being provided to Winnipeggers - to ensure that our citizens do not receive cuts to the services they rely on.
The Local will be making presentations on behalf of the membership at various standing committees as necessary and at City Council on March 22, 2016.
Please watch for further updates on this important matter over the next few weeks.
HAVE YOU BEEN AFFECTED BY VACANCY MANAGEMENT?
Please tell us if you have any unfilled positions in your workplace under the vacancy management program and how this has affected you and the services you provide. This information will help us in our efforts to end vacancy management and ensure there are enough workers to provide the services Winnipeggers expect and rely on.
You can email us at
union500@cupe.mb.ca or send us a fax: 204-956-1439.
