Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently released that Ottawa is offering $2.2 billion to cities as they face what he describes as a cash crunch during the pandemic.
The money was, in fact, already earmarked as federal support for cities via the gas tax fund.
That fund was to be paid out in two installments, Trudeau said Monday (June 1) the $2.2 billion for 2020-21 will be paid out in full to introduce immediate support for municipalities.
However, that does not mean Yorkton will be seeing any new money, said Yorkton Mayor, although he added the program details are an unknown at present.
“They make all these announcements, but they don’t attach any details to it,” he said.
The other side of things for Maloney is the level of uncertainty there is in knowing exactly what the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be in terms of City revenues, most of which are generated through property taxes.
Maloney said residential property taxes aren’t due until the end of June, so how much may go unpaid is not yet known, although he said so far they appear to be rolling in as normal, with many residents paying a portion of their home taxes with each water billing, or they are paid as part of mortgage payments that then flow to the city.
On the business side, it is more of an unknown with the City having extended the deadline for payment of those taxes until the end of September, said Maloney.
Still, even with the unknowns Maloney said Yorkton is faring well so far.
“We’re in good financial shape in the city of Yorkton,” he offered, adding “I think that’s because of good stewardship.
“I think we’re going to be fine.”
Maloney did acknowledge some other cities, in particular larger ones, appear to be feeling the financial impact more keenly, and that is where the federal announcement appears to be focused.
“It’s targeted at places like Vancouver where they’re already crying,” he said.
The larger cities have huge numbers of employees and that means a monthly payroll that must be met, said Maloney, adding a downturn in revenue flow can hurt pretty quickly in that situation.
Locally, Maloney said staff have been kept on only as long as there has been work to do.
When work runs out, “we will be doing layoffs to try and safeguard our financial position,” said Maloney. “We won’t be paying people if there’s no work for them.”
