In November, City of Winnipeg departmental budgets were presented to various Council Committees to meet the budget constraint for minimal property tax increases. The proposal to the City's 'Water and Waste, Riverbank Management and Environment Committee' (wow, that is a mouthful) to "Discontinue garbage bin collection for multi-family, charity and commercial customers ... Impacted customers would select service directly through private contractors" caught the attention of CCI-MB Directors and condo owners alike.

In January, CCI-MB sent a bulletin (see opposite page) to all condo property managers in the City (both member and non-member companies) asking them to forward to their unit owners, As well, we sent to all individual unit owners for whom we had contact details and also posted on our website. We'd like to thank all of you that have communicated with your City Councilor, the Mayor's Office and with us (many hands lighten the load).

In early February, the City announced the key dates for the budget process

• Release of preliminary budget on March 6th,

• Environment Committee budget meeting on March 18th,

• Executive Policy Committee (EPC) budget meeting on March 19th,

• EPC presents final budget on March 20th

• Council to vote on the budget on March 25th.

We have contacted the City Clerk's office and have been added to the delegate list to present our case on the 18th and 19th.

Additionally, we have approached the local print and broadcast media to get our views known. As we go to press with the winter edition of your Condominium News and Views, we have had the following coverage:

• Global News CJOB Radio Geoff Curier - No More Pickup? https://globalnews.ca/winnipeg/program/geoff-currier/

• CBC News - City should turf proposal to end garbage pickup, condo owners group says https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ manitoba/city-winnipeg-budget-multi-family-garbage-collection-1.5468447

• CTV News - Proposed budget cuts may have condo owners paying for garbage and recycling pick up https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/proposed-budget-cuts-may-have-condo-owners-paying-for-garbage-and-recycling-pick-up-1.4821172

Best case our efforts to date will have removed the proposal from the preliminary budget that will be presented on March 6th, but it is likely that our presentations to the Committees on March 18th and 19th will be required nonetheless. Hopefully your efforts and ours will stop this additional tax unfairness for condo owners.

Alan Forbes

CCI MB Communications Committee