The increasing inflation rate will have severe impacts on the City of Winnipeg budget, which may impact residents.
The cost-of-living increases are impacting the cost of supplies, road construction, and operations for the City of Winnipeg. The most significant financial impact is the cost of fuel for operating City Vehicles.
On March 3rd, the firm JPMorgan forecasted a possible end-of-year rise in the price of oil to US$185 per barrel. Last March, oil was only at US$65 per barrel. US$185 would convert to over $3.00 per litre.
Winnipeg currently spends over $10 million a year on fuel for all vehicles, including transit.
Councillor Kevin Klein has introduced a motion at City Council directing the CAO and CFO to develop formal plans to reduce departmental fuel usage.
"The public must be able to see that City departments are actively taking steps to reduce fuel costs," said Klein.
These plans should include the implementation of no-idling policies, more efficient routing while traveling, travel to and from sites during off traffic hours, carpooling instead of sending multiple vehicles, running onboard devices using batteries instead of the engine, transition to smaller vehicles, purchase of hybrid or electric vehicles, and virtual inspections.
The CAO and CFO can also direct project management to plan large amounts of work in a single city area rather than having crews travel across the city to various worksites within the same day.
Klein said he wants the CFO to develop and present to Council a detailed breakdown of City fuel purchases by each department and their sub-units for the past three years. Council can then use this document to monitor the impacts of rising fuel prices and departmental efforts to improve efficiency.
The motion is below.
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