Budget 2026

The City of Winnipeg’s budget for 2026  has been tabled for review and discussion.  This budget reflects the city’s commitment to balancing its financial responsibilities while investing in critical infrastructure and services for its residents. You can find details at Budget 2026.

Key Highlights of the 2026 Budget

• Operating budget (spending on city services): $1.49 billion
• Capital budget (tax-supported spending on infrastructure and equipment): $1.2 billion
• Property Tax Increase: The budget proposes a 3.5% increase in property taxes, which is expected to generate approximately $28 million in additional revenue. This increase aligns with the tax rates experienced in 2023 and 2024, following a higher increase of 5.95% in 2025. Property taxes are the largest source of revenue for the city.
• Winnipeg Transit infrastructure almost doubles, from $75 million to $137 million. Most is dedicated towards purchasing new buses — $101 million compared to $42 million in 2025.
• The addition of 40 Full Time firefighters position over the next four years (10/yr)
• Police budget: $370 million, up $18 million from $352 million in 2025.
• Fire-paramedic budget: $262 million, up $8 million from $254 million in 2025.
• ​Road repairs: $156 million, with a % of funding allocated to the widening of Route 90 and the extension of Chief Peguis Trail.
• Snow-clearing budget: $50 million
• North End sewage treatment plant: $547 million toward the final phase of upgrades to the North End Water Pollution Control Centre. The city will borrow money for this.

For a good high level overview – see pages 1-61 of the  Operating, Reserves and Capital Budget Book

 While there are many positives in the budget – there are a few areas that I’ve been advocating for over many years and am very very pleased with the following:

Establishment of an Office of Continuous Improvement

• Adopting Lean Six Sigma methodologies with training
• Oversight by new Chief Operating Officer
• I am very very pleased with this focus  – the City employs upwards of 10,000 staff. Much of the service work that the city delivers is repetitive – and with repetitive work there is opportunities for optimization of service delivery. This office will also be working closely with the Information Technology department to leverage the use of AI on many initiatives.

Road Safety Division:  $45 million over 6 years – Two years ago, due to strong advocacy work, the City established a Road Safety Division and staffed it. This division is focused on improving road safety city wide

Active Transportation: $112,841million over 6 years

Highlights in the Waverley West Ward:

There are some major transportation & infrastructure improvements coming, along with recreation improvements!

• $23 million Bison / Waverley extension- intersection construction 2031
• $1.5 Millon class 3 estimate for construction of the indoor aquatic facility attached to new recreation campus. Estimated cost is ~ $58.5+Million
• $400,000 Parks garage at Eaglewood Park (~2027 when modular fire/paramedics station is relocated)
• $1 Million in various outdoor recreation facilities

Public Meetings:

• The preliminary update to the 2024-27 multi-year balanced budget will be tabled at a special meeting of the Executive Policy Committee on November 14, 2025.
• Public meetings will follow to discuss the budget and allow residents to provide input. If you want to speak at any of the meetings, see:  Budget 2026

INTERESTING FACT:

• For many years, the City of Winnipeg, and all larger cities across Canada have been advocation the Federal Government, and their local Provincial governments for a new ‘funding model’. Currently the only way for cities to raise revenues is through property taxes. Cities are growing and have old infrastructure needs that must be addressed – BUT also must keep life affordable for residents.  Cities have wanted to ‘share’ in the revenue generated by the Province and Federal governments. How much more revenue does the Province and Federal government bring in vs a city ?

EXAMPLE:

Winnipeg just hosted the 2025 Grey Cup. According to analysis done by Winnipeg Econonomic Development and Tourism, revenue generated from taxes (PST / GST) is:

• $8.2 Million for Province of Manitoba
• $5.6 Million for Federal Government
• $386,500 for City of Winnipeg

Yes, there is only ONE taxpayer, but . . . . I completely agree that the allocation of revenue should be reviewed and consideration (funding) should be allocated to Cities to address their infrastructure needs, more so than it is currently.