City of Winnipeg posts modest surplus for 2024 instead of deficit
Turnaround due to investment income, year-end decision to book police-HQ lawsuit settlement as a receivable
The City of Winnipeg has ended up with a modest surplus on its 2024 budget instead of posting a deficit.
Winnipeg ended last year with a $7.2-million surplus on its $1.35-billion budget, says a year-end financial report published on Monday.
That works out to a budget surplus of about half of a percentage point.
When financial figures were tallied for the first 11 months of 2024, city finance officials projected a year-end deficit of $20.5 million, mainly because of higher-than-expected spending on snow clearing and fire-paramedic service overtime.
That shortfall has been erased by higher-than-expected interest on city investments, lower-than-expected fuel costs for Winnipeg Transit and the year-end recognition the city is slated to receive at least $22.5 million as a settlement in its lawsuit against contractor Caspian Construction over the construction of the Winnipeg Police Headquarters.
Finance chair Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said while the accounting decision erases the 2024 deficit, it does nothing to help future deficits that arise from the gap between city revenue and expenses.
"It's one-time money. The challenges that we still have do remain," Browaty said in an interview.
The turnaround in 2024 nonetheless does help the city going forward. It will prevent the city from draining what remains of its fiscal stabilization reserve, which functions as a rainy-day fund. There was only $10.4 million left in that fund at the end of 2024.
That fund will now be topped up to $17.6 million, using the surplus funds from 2024. The rainy day remains $64 million shy of its recommended minimum target of six per cent of annual city operating spending, which works out to $81 million.
City council's finance committee will scrutinize the year-end report on Friday but does not have to take any action. City council-approved policy grants finance officials the authority to put surplus funds in the rainy day fund.
The city's legal settlement with Caspian Construction requires the company to pay the $22.5 million by the end of this month. The payment will rise to $23.5 million if payment is made in March 2025 and $28 million if full payment is not made by March 2026.
The city placed a $28-million mortgage on six properties associated with Caspian in 2024. Those properties could be sold in the event Caspian fails to pay the settlement.
"We have completed our due diligence on those properties, and are satisfied that security has been registered that would sufficiently satisfy the settlement. As such, we are now booking this amount as part of the 2024 results," city spokesperson Adam Campbell wrote in an emailed statement.
With files from Cameron MacLean