The City of North Bay is projecting a year-end deficit of nearly $785,000.
Tanya Vrebosch, Deputy Mayor and Budget Chief, says it’s a point-in-time outlook on the finances, as of June 30th.
“One of the things I really want to stress here is that we’ve utilized every dollar that we could between the Safe Restart funding, all the municipal grants, the transit funding and the mayor’s plan have been fully depleted,” she says.
Vrebosch says a number of departments are reporting shortfalls.
“Community Services is projecting a half-million-dollar deficit because we are so reliant on user fees,” she says. “Transit is another one that we’ve seen an extreme reduction in revenues even though there have been changes in the level of service.”
The year-end projection says COVID-19 related facility closures and other restrictions reduced the city’s expected revenues by about $2.3 million.
The report says mitigating actions include about $1.4 million in estimated corporate-wide net expense savings.
“Staff are doing what they can to do gapping within services and work within their means, but also providing all of the services that citizens expect,” Vrebosch says.
She also points out that last year they saw the projections change by a million dollars over a three-month period.
Vrebosch also thanked the federal government for providing funding for the airport, which means they won’t have to take upwards $850,000 out of reserves this year.
Councillor George Maroosis wanted the report to go to committee, to go over the details.
His amendment was defeated and the main motion, to receive and file the report, was passed.
