Winnipeg’s tree budget spared from the chipper

The city will take on more debt to avoid trimming its tree-planting budget.

In a motion approved at Thursday’s city council meeting, Mayor Scott Gillingham noted a boost in water and sewer revenues, reported earlier this year, helped the city cover a greater portion of major sewage upgrades without debt. That change added $48 million to the city’s debt capacity.

Gillingham’s motion successfully called for the city to use some of that debt room to avoid the cut, which aimed to fill an unexpected budget gap.

“By allocating this $1.2 million towards debt, that allows us to maintain our record tree budget … I committed to increasing our budget for urban forestry, adding more trees, reducing the time it takes to prune trees, so that we can protect our canopy,” he said prior to the vote.

The Manitoba government recently directed the city to spend an additional $1.236 million of its provincial “strategic infrastructure basket” funding on the Assiniboine Park Conservancy Journey to Churchill Exhibit. City finance officials recommended transferring some tree funding to fill that gap, and council’s executive policy committee voted in favour of the plan on July 7.

However, strong public opposition to the move led the mayor to change his mind. Two days later, he promised to find a way to avoid the cut.

In contrast with his previous vote, the mayor said Thursday that protecting trees is a top council priority, since they not only beautify the city but help cool properties and streets on hot days.

Despite a tight city budget, he said taking on more debt makes sense in this case. The city will pay $80,000 to cover the extra borrowing costs this year.

On Thursday morning, prior to the vote, a few members of the public spoke against the proposed tree budget cut.

“(We were) a little shocked last week to read that EPC decided to use this tree-planting budget as sort of a slush fund for an infrastructure project that fell short,” said Christian Cassidy, executive director of Trees Winnipeg.

Cassidy said the proposal risked undermining the city’s recent gains in maintaining its canopy, noting it now manages to plant as many trees as it loses each year, to diseases such as Dutch elm.

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) criticized EPC for its initial vote to reduce the tree-planting budget, suggesting the public service is being unfairly blamed for recommending the option.

Rollins said emails show finance staff presented a host of other “unpalatable” budget cuts, which could have also been publicly considered, such as reducing funds for Millennium Library.

“The choice that executive policy committee made … they’re laying at the feet of the public service in this motion … There were other options that were available,” she said.

The mayor said city staff, not politicians, selected the controversial recommendation to cut the tree-planting budget.

“The report really clearly states the public service recommendation to take the funds from urban forestry,” he said.

Winnipeggers will head to the polls Oct. 28 to elect a new mayor and council. Gillingham is seeking re-election.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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