The City of Winnipeg has launched new open data tools that will help members of the public learn more about capital projects underway and still seeking funding in the city, which includes the status and timelines of major and minor water infrastructure projects.
“Today’s announcement marks another significant step forward in making information more readily available to residents about how their tax dollars are being invested,” said Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman. “These new tools make the City of Winnipeg amongst the civic leaders in Canada by making it easier for residents to access information on budget and capital projects in an open, accountable, and user-friendly way.”
The Open Budget reports fundamental financial information of adopted budget, amended budget, and actual costs categorized by department, category, and subcategory for the city’s entire portfolio of almost 700 open capital projects.
The Open Capital Projects Dashboard complements the Open Budget tool by reporting on the performance of the city’s active capital projects with budgets of $5 million or more. The dashboard’s schedule/cost variance matrix was custom developed to do this analysis and measures all projects’ performances based on cost and schedule criteria.
“These tools, and in particular the Open Capital Projects Dashboard are truly innovative,” said Cindy Gilroy, chair of the Standing Policy Committee on Innovation. “They eliminate the complexity required to analyze capital projects by using the matrix.”
Also launched today is an unfunded major capital projects website, which aims to improve openness and transparency and to provide a status update as to the current cost and class estimate of unfunded major capital projects. It also functions as an update on potential financing options and active funding requests.
“The information posted online through the unfunded major capital projects website is truly foundational. Not only does it provide greater clarity for elected officials and members of the public, it gives Council a more robust set of data for which we can make informed decisions,” said Councillor Mike Pagtakhan, Council Liaison for Project Management. “This is all the more important, because as the city continues to grow, we will face difficult choices in funding capital projects, determining affordability, and what additional sources of revenue may be available to fund them.”
