As you consider the City of Winnipeg’s 2012 budget, here are a couple beefs and bouquets worth consideration.

First, kudos to Councillor Scott Fielding, the city’s budget chair, for pushing “modified managed competition.” It may sound geeky, but it could save ratepayers a bundle.

What it means, is that the city plans to do more of something you do everyday – shop around for the best deal. You see, the city is going to look at services it is currently paying city staff to do right now and see if private businesses can do it for a lower price. 

For example, it will look at what it costs to hire a private company to cut grass in city parks. If city employees can match the estimate, they’ll keep doing the work. If they can’t, the city will hire a business to do the work for less. 

And we know there is plenty of savings out there to be had. For example, a few years ago the city stopped picking up garbage at homes in the south part of the city. It instead hired a private company to do the work and reduced costs by 36 per cent. Even better, complaints went down by 20 per cent. Thus, taxpayers got a better service at a lower cost.

While it’s great the city is going to start doing more shopping around, the process has its flaws and it’s a little late.

You see, council continues to sign contracts with its largest union (CUPE) that guarantees no layoffs. That means that if the city hires a business to do a service for a lower price, it has to move existing staff to other areas. If there aren’t vacancies, it could make it hard to maximize savings.

As for being late, you should know that council already passed a policy to pursue more shopping around back in 1997. The problem is, things never fully materialized. That’s why a 2006 report again called for shopping around, noting the city could save millions each year. Unfortunately, the recommendation was largely ignored until recently.

Had the city looked at more shopping around for services over the past six years, you probably wouldn’t be looking at a 3.5 per cent property tax increase this year. That of course is the bad news highlight of the budget.

It’s true that the city has done a pretty good job with property taxes over the past decade, but that doesn’t mean they should rise simply because they haven’t risen in a while. After all, there is still plenty of room for improvement at city hall.

For example, it’s a well known fact around the council table that lifeguards at city-run facilities are paid about double what YMCA lifeguards make. It’s also well known that the city’s employee pension plans are extremely costly for taxpayers. Unfortunately, not much is being done to address these issues. 

It’s great the city is looking for $2 million in efficiencies this year. For an organization with a $900 million budget, and one that ran a $10 million surplus last year, it shouldn’t be hard to find. 

However, there needs to be more focus on eliminating waste, rather than asking taxpayers for more money.