Save our Canopy
Join OURS-Winnipeg campaign "Save Our Canopy" to ensure Winnipeg City Council places a budget priority on our urban forest!
Update:
Email Until - Thursday, March 19, 2020
Email Mayor Bowman and your councillor to let them know you want to see increased forestry funding in the 2020 budget, in order to save our canopy. Thank you if you have already sent a letter. You can still send a reminder.
Important Dates-
Friday, March 6 – 1:30 pm
Draft budget will be released at Executive Policy Committee Meeting including urban forestry budget (More info here). Opportunity to see if $7.61 million is in the forestry budget.
Friday, March 13, 2020 – 9:30 am
Standing Policy Committee on Protection, Community Services and Parks (Forestry) – Opportunity for public to speak. Register by 4:30pm the day before the meeting.
Thursday, March 19, 2020 – 9:00 am
Executive Policy Committee Meeting (Special Meeting) Opportunity for public to speak
Residents’ Associations, OURS-Winnipeg, and neighbourhood groups have responded by working together calling on Mayor and Council to increase the forestry budget by $7.61 million, the shortfall identified by the Parks and Open Space Division in 2019.
The City of Winnipeg’s iconic tree canopy is in crisis due to disease, climate change and chronic under-funding. October’s unprecedented storm displayed the challenges extreme weather can place on the urban forest and the need for its stable funding and care. The city’s forestry budget has not allowed for adequate disease management(p. 17 ), planting (p. 148), or pruning, (we fall well below industry best practices, p. 149). As a result, we are losing our canopy.
Please email your letter emailed before Thursday, March 19, 2020 the day before City Council’s Executive Policy Committee will meet at City Hall to table the budget. The draft budget presented by the City of Winnipeg in November proposed several cuts to vital community services, which will negatively affect our communities in the long run.
View budget presentations. Parks and Open Space Capitol Budget at
The Budget Presentation (Nov 16/19) for Public Works Department (Parks & Open Spaces Division) did not address the $7.61 million shortfall of the 2019 Urban Forest Enhancement Program for tree pruning and maintenance .
