How the mayor plans to prevent any cuts to the tree budget

We now know how the mayor plans to maintain the tree-planting budget.

An increase in the city’s debt capacity could be the solution to ensure the budget for tree planting remains unchanged.

In a motion at city hall, Mayor Scott Gillingham proposed the city use increased debt capacity that came to be from higher water and waste revenues as a way to pay for the $1.2 million needed to cover the tree budget.

It was reported earlier this year that the city received an extra $48 million from water and waste revenues last year. That money was used to help payoff more of the upgrades to the North End Treatment Plant – helping add to the debt capacity.

The $1.2 million shortfall for the tree budget came after the city was directed by the province to divert money to the Assiniboine Park Zoo to pay for upgrades to the Journey of Churchill exhibit.

A city report recommended the money come from the tree budget and the Executive Policy Committee approved the change.

However, following the announcement, the city and mayor received backlash about the decision, with Trees Winnipeg executive director calling it “terrible.”

“That cut could mean thousands of trees not planted on city boulevards, city parks like this, in other places around the city,” Christian Cassidy previously told CTV News.

Gillingham then announced he would work to find a way to leave the tree budget untouched.

The motion passed at council Thursday.

“Our urban canopy does so much to cool our streets, cool our community and make sure that we have the kind of city that is attractive for people. So we need to maintain our investment in our urban canopy,” Gillingham said Thursday.

The mayor did comment on the province requiring the city to move funds around, noting it can cause issues with city planning.

“In many cases, we kind of give the province a heads up even before we adopt our budget how we’re going to be proposing to allocate the provincial grant for capital funding,” said Gillingham.

“It’s the province that changes their mind part way through the year. They’ve done it a couple times now, and once last year it was right at the at the end of the year. That’s a problem. I appreciate that they made a decision sooner, earlier in this year, but it leaves the City of Winnipeg scrambling, and it leaves us finding ways or trying to find other funding sources for these priority projects.”