Winnipeg fire and police services ask for help filling gaps in 2020 budget

Both Winnipeg Police Service chief Danny Smyth and Winnipeg Fire Paramedic chief John Lane were at city hall looking for the same thing more money to balance their books for2020.

The services both have holes in their budgets and came to the city's finance committee to explainthe need tofillin the gap. The pandemic, pensions and overtime are mostly to blame for the overruns.

For the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) the pressure mostly comes froman arbitrator's ruling last spring that tore a multi-million dollar chunk out oftheir budget. A plan to achieve nearly$15 million in savings over three yearsfrom a reduction in officer's pensions fell apart after the ruling sided with the union and not the city.

The WPSwas able to find $620,000 in savingsdue to other salaries and benefitsavingsover the last several months, but that leaves a $2.9 millionshortfall to the end of this year.

Thefinance committee voted to use cash from the city's fiscal stabilization fund to cover the shortfall, but Smyth faces more of the same budget difficulty next year and the year afteras the financial hole remains from the arbitrator's decision.

The WPS chief says by carefully managing the number of new officers and staff coming on board, it should allow the service to make up the difference.

"We've had a larger-than-normal turnover in terms of retirements well over our 10-year average. So we have a little bit of a buffer there in terms of managing vacancy management," Smyth told reporters.

Smyth also believesnegotiations for an upcoming new contract with WPS officers should result insome of the pension savings the city hoped to get before the arbitrator ruled against it.

Fire needs more than Police

A combination of pressure on staffing levels from the COVID-19 health emergency and an underestimation ofpayouts for overtime add up to a $4.4 million cost overrun for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS).

The WFPSroutinely budgets less for overtime than it spends, then receives funding to cover the shortfall at the end of the year.

Chief John Lane told councillors a significant portion of the overtime expenditures come from higher-than-normal retirements, prompting the WFPS to schedule extra shifts for members still working.

"We've seen a particularly unusual number of retirements in the latter half of the year, which are quite difficult to predict and then react to because, of course, it takes time to assemble a class," Lane said.

The pandemic has also played a role in driving up costs for the WFPS, Lane told reporters Tuesday.

"That has increased the number of absencesdue to people being absolutely forbidden from coming to work with any symptoms whatsoever of cold or flu or anything and [also]the self-isolation that was required certainly when the outbreak occurred," Lane told reporters following his submission to the finance committee.

The committee voted, as with the WPS request,to use the city's fiscal stabilization fund to cover the overruns for the WFPS.

Though both senior officers were looking for funding to make up holes in their current budgets, city hall is in the midst of deliberations for next year's budgetforall departments,and some of issues the cost of the pandemic, pensions and retirements will likely repeat for 2021.

Finance chair Scott Gillinghamsays a combination of financialhelp from the federal government though its Safe Restart program, some austerity measures and using a multi-year budget process should help the city weather the storm but he still worries about next year.

"It sets us up to face the financial implications of the pandemic in 2021...but we're not out of the woods. I am still concerned about how long this pandemic goes and the financial impact on on the city," Gillingham said.