![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/067e59d8a6f71a1e06945f5b2536d57f.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA spike in water revenue last year could lead the City of Winnipeg to freeze water and sewer rates next year instead of going ahead with a planned hike.<\/p>\n
Mayor Scott Gillingham and members of his inner circle are proposing a rate freeze in 2027 and cancelling a planned 4.2 per cent increase.<\/p>\n
The proposal stems from a sharp jump in water use in 2025, which translated into higher revenues for the city’s water and waste utility.<\/p>\n
“We had a spike of 8.1 per cent in billed water and sewer usage,” Coun. Jeff Browaty, chair of the city’s finance committee, said. “It ended up producing a $67-million windfall of sorts.”<\/p>\n
Browaty says much of the cost of running the utility is fixed, meaning higher consumption doesn’t necessarily come with equivalent increases in expenses.<\/p>\n
The city is looking at how to use that extra revenue.<\/p>\n
Most of it would go toward reducing how much the city needs to borrow for upgrades to the North End sewage treatment plant, a $3.2-billion project that has already driven significant rate increases in recent years.<\/p>\n
“This is about being financially responsible,” Gillingham said.\u00a0“We can use part of the funds to offset some of the debt we’d have to incur for the North End plant.”<\/p>\n
The mayor also framed the proposal as a way to provide relief at a time when many households are feeling financial pressure.<\/p>\n
“It’s also an opportunity with these funds to really help people who are struggling with affordability,” he said.<\/p>\n
Beyond holding rates steady, the plan includes adding $1.1 million to the city’s H2O affordability program, which helps lower-income homeowners pay their water and sewer bills.<\/p>\n
The proposal comes with conditions.<\/p>\n
The rate freeze depends on the federal and provincial governments committing funding for the final phase of the North End plant, estimated to cost approximately $1.5 billion. The city has already budgeted $547 million for its one-third share of the project.<\/p>\n
Both the province and federal governments have said they will help pay for the final phase of the plant, but no specific funding commitments have been made.<\/p>\n
Without support fed, Gillingham says the cost would fall entirely on ratepayers, which could drive bills significantly higher.<\/p>\n
News of the possible freeze came as good news to one Winnipeg business owner.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The proposed rate freeze is contingent on the federal and provincial governments committing money to the North End sewage treatment plant. (Rudi Pawlychyn\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Jason Polet, owner of the Wave Car Wash, told CBC News water and sewer rates are “an expensive input” to his business.<\/p>\n
“If the city decided to not implement the increase, it’s good for the customers since that component will not be part of our equation,” he wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Sherri Rollins criticized the mayor for calling for the freeze without the funding commitments from other levels of government.<\/p>\n
“This so-called \u2018freeze’ depends on funding that doesn’t exist. Without confirmed federal and provincial commitments, this plan isn’t affordability \u2014 it’s fiction,” she said in a news release Friday.<\/p>\n
The city says freezing rates would mean about $15 million less in revenue for the utility in 2027, a gap officials believe they can absorb given last year’s surplus.<\/p>\n
The proposed freeze needs approval from city council. If adopted \u2014 and if outside funding comes through \u2014 it would mark the first time since 2019 that Winnipeg has held water and sewer rates flat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spike in water revenue last year could lead the City of Winnipeg to freeze water and sewer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,230473,226082,11547,230472,22073],"class_list":{"0":"post-611865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-rate-freeze","11":"tag-scott-gillingham","12":"tag-water","13":"tag-water-and-sewer","14":"tag-winnipeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}