Winnipeg, MB - The City of Winnipeg's Financial Status Update Report to December 31, 2016, will be presented at the meeting of the Standing Policy Committee on Finance on February 13, 2017. The Report cites a deficit of $5.1 million for the 2016 fiscal year (ending December 31, 2016). Under The City of Winnipeg Charter, the City of Winnipeg is legally required to balance its budget and is not permitted to run a deficit, therefore deficit elimination measures have been taken.
At its meeting of December 14, 2016, City Council approved the use of deficit elimination measures if the General Revenue Fund reported a year end deficit. In order to eliminate the $5.1 million deficit, and balance the 2016 budget, the following measures have been taken:
- $1.4 million has been retained in the General Revenue Fund in respect of net supplementary taxes and tax roll adjustments,
- $0.4 million has been retained in the General Revenue Fund in respect of interest net of investment management fees, and
- $3.3 million has been transferred from the Financial Stabilization Reserve.
“The December snowfall clearly had a significant effect on our 2016 year end, and we will now see an impact on our 2017 budget as it was developed when we were expecting a $9.5 million surplus in 2016,” said Councillor Scott Gillingham, Chair of the Standing Policy Committee on Finance. “We are now doing the hard work to identify ways to control discretionary spending in 2017, and looking at what other measures may need to be taken to make up the shortfall.”