Delayed 911 fee adds to $19.2M deficit forecast for City of Winnipeg

A new fee for 911 services approved by City of Winnipeg council earlier this year has been delayed.

The 2024 budget included a new $1 charge, which would be added to each monthly phone bill registered to a Winnipeg address, to help pay for the transition to next-generation 911 technology. 

The fee was supposed to take effect July 1. It took city staff longer than expected to learn the regulatory process, which meant council was delayed in passing a bylaw needed to bring in the fee, finance committee chair Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said in an interview. 

Council passed the bylaw at its July meeting. It now needs approval from the provincial government, through a vote of cabinet. 

"We should have done the bylaw earlier. We just didn't know what the exact process was," Browaty said.

"I guess it's new ground for us. We haven't had a particular fee like this before."

The delay means the city won't receive $3.7 million it was expecting to collect through the fee this year.

Those details were included in a second-quarter financial status update the city released on Tuesday.

Finance department officials now predict the deficit for this year will be $19.2 million, down from $39.3 million projected in the first quarter.

Higher than expected interest earnings, reduced debt charges, and the elimination of a transfer to the city's fiscal stabilization reserve fund, commonly referred to as the rainy day fund, all helped bring the projected deficit down.

The expected deficit still exceeds the $16.3 million in the reserve fund, leaving a $2.9-million shortfall. The city is legally required to balance its budget each year.

To do that, the city plans to reduce discretionary spending, pause hiring for "non-essential staff," and defer taking on some debt, the financial update says. It also expects increased revenue estimates to make up some of the shortfall.

The latest budget update is an improvement from the first quarter, "but it's still not as much as we'd like," Browaty said.

"Obviously, the fact that we would be depleting the rainy day fund in its entirety is certainly a challenge. That is going to make it all that much more tough to come up with a balanced budget for year two of the multi-year budget, but that work is getting underway right now."

On top of the lost revenue from the 911 fee, reasons for the deficit include overtime and workers' compensation payouts for fire-paramedics, higher than expected costs for snow clearing and police, and lower than expected revenue from the property and development department, the update says.

Browaty says the delay in implementing the 911 fee will not affect the city's plan to bring in the new technology in 2026.

It will allow people to stream video and send photos to emergency responders, as well as communicate by text message.