Gillingham’s budget: The facts behind the Spin Part-1: Data shows Winnipeg water rates near the top in Canada

When the Winnipeg mayor, Scott Gillingham, talks about modest increases, he rarely mentions that Winnipeg’s water and sewer division has become a piggy bank for general spending and is among the highest in Canada.

Mayor Scott Gillingham has decided that word games are his preferred tool for shaping public opinion. He speaks as if affordability is something achieved through slogans rather than decisions. He repeats the same lines about keeping costs down while residents watch their bills climb. He presents himself as the steady captain of an affordable city, but a steady spin is still spin. You deserve better than slogans. You deserve facts, because facts are what affect your bank account, not the mayor’s catchphrases or carefully crafted announcements.

This is the first in a series of pieces that will cut through the fog surrounding this election budget. We will talk to experts across Winnipeg, people who work inside the systems this council claims to manage so well, and people who understand the impact of these choices in the real world. Their lived experience matters more than the political theatre presented by City Hall. Today, we start with a simple question sent to me by Patricia, one that reveals more than the mayor may want you to notice.

She asked: When the City of Winnipeg announces new water rates and says the average household bill will increase by, for example, $44, do they mean per month, per billing cycle, or per year? She assumed it was $44 per year but worried she was wrong.

Her instinct was right. When the city quotes numbers like $44 or $68, they mean the annual increase, not the monthly one. They use the annual figure because it sounds smaller and more manageable. It also allows the mayor to say he is protecting affordability while still bringing in more revenue. What rarely gets stated is how those numbers appear on your actual bill.

Winnipeg bills quarterly, so a $44 annual increase is about $11 per quarter, depending on consumption. A $68 increase is about $17 per quarter. A $168 increase works out to about $56 per quarter. The political framing is always annual. The financial reality is always quarterly. And the political advantage is built on that difference.

This would be less of an issue if the city were being transparent about what matters most: how much more you are paying for an essential service you cannot choose to avoid. People do not get to shop around for water. They cannot comparison-shop their sewer bill. This is a monopoly, and monopolies require stronger honesty, not weaker. When the mayor talks about modest increases, he rarely mentions that Winnipeg’s water and sewer division has become a piggy bank for general spending. This council continues to take profits from Water and Waste and funnel them into unrelated costs, instead of putting those dollars back into the system people are paying for. The mayor knows this. The council knows this. Homeowners certainly feel it.

What makes this more frustrating is the absence of any real attempt to trim nonessential spending. There is no evidence of restraint inside the budget. Before asking residents to pay more, a council serious about affordability would examine its own operations, pull back on wants, and focus on needs. That hasn’t happened. Instead, the pressure is placed on households while political messaging is dressed up as fiscal responsibility.

I saw this mindset up close when I was Minister of Environment. I brought the City of Winnipeg, Councillor Brian Mayes, provincial officials, and two international water and waste experts to the table to talk about the most cost-effective, proven path to address the North End Water Pollution Control Centre. I remember how divided the room was, each side claiming they were defending the public interest. One of the experts, a world-renowned specialist in this field, questioned why Winnipeg was designing what he described as the Lamborghini of treatment plants. His point was simple: you do not need a luxury model when a reliable, cost-efficient model exists. He offered a plan that respected taxpayers. City representatives dismissed it outright. It was not because they had stronger evidence. It was because they had already decided the outcome.

That moment stayed with me because it revealed what drives decisions inside the system. The plan for the north end plant seems designed to impress engineering associations and win recognition, not to deliver the most efficient, affordable solution for the people paying for it. And while the mayor promotes himself as the defender of affordability, he has delayed key decisions and waited for other levels of government to fund the project so he can later claim credit. That is not leadership. That is political risk-management disguised as progress.

I wish the current provincial government had kept that working group alive. It was the one forum where real questions were being asked and evidence was being tested. Without it, Winnipeggers know less than they should about one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in the city’s history. Transparency is uncomfortable for politicians, but it is essential for taxpayers.

The water rate discussion is only one part of a much bigger budget picture. Over the next several days, we will look at other areas, starting with overtime costs and why this mayor and his council rely on overtime so heavily. When spending rises without discipline, governments look for revenue wherever they can find it. That pressure always finds its way to the ratepayer.

And while the mayor keeps repeating lines about affordability, here is something he will not say: Winnipeg has some of the highest water rates in Canada. A typical household will pay about $1,476 a year in 2025. That is higher than Ottawa and Hamilton and slightly higher than Edmonton and Calgary. It is not the lowest in the country, no matter how often the mayor suggests otherwise. It is edging upward faster than inflation, faster than wage growth for many families, and faster than the mayor would ever admit in his public messaging.

Spin does not reduce a bill. Slogans do not make water cheaper. What matters is the amount you are paying and whether the decisions behind those increases are responsible. That is why we will continue to present facts—clear, verifiable, and grounded in reality. Because the mayor may offer comforting language, but households need clarity, not comfort. Clarity comes from facts, and that is what this series will deliver. Look for Part 2 in the Sunday edition of the Winnipeg Sun as we continue to track where your money is going and what the city isn’t telling you.