Manitoba’s municipalities are losing control of their operating spending, according to a report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Elliot Sims with the CFIB shares some of their findings.

“CFIB decided to look at the operating spending of municipalities to see how they’re doing in terms of spending increases. CFIB believes that the reasonable benchmark for spending to increase by is the rate of inflation plus population growth. What we found is that Manitoba’s largest municipalities have actually far exceeded that benchmark and the costs have been nearly $412 million dollars for residents in those municipalities.”

Thompson was included in this list.

“While inflation-adjusted spending increased by 9% over 5 years,  actually the inflation-adjusted costs for labour increased by 23%. So,  far higher than population growth which saw a decline by 2% over that same period.”

Sims says one of the biggest costs affecting municipalities is labour.

“We did a study called Wage Watch a few years ago which indicated that Manitoba municipal workers receive a 34% wage and benefits advantage compared to individuals working in the private sector in the same job.”

Sims says with elections just around the corner, Manitoba taxpayers should ask candidates for their plans on how they’ll bring spending under control.