Collingwood councillors threw their official support behind a request to the federal government to provide $10 to $15 billion in funding to Canadian municipalities to deal with the impacts of the pandemic.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) submitted the request to the Canadian government accompanied by a report showing a “near-term gap” of $10 to $15 billion based on financial information supplied by municipalities.
Collingwood Councillor Kathy Jeffery is on the FCM board and notified council of the report and subsequent funding request. On Monday night Jeffery also asked council to endorse the FCM’s work lobbying the government for emergency operating funding for Canadian municipalities. The endorsement vote passed unanimously.
“Municipal leaders are taking extraordinary steps to keep Canadians safe during this pandemic,” said Coun. Jeffery in a news release from the town. “But with costs rising, revenues plummeting, and no ability to run deficits, municipalities are facing financial crisis. In small urban communities like Collingwood, limited resources means the job of protecting Canadians is even harder.”
The FCM report submitted with the $10 billion request states municipalities are facing a “crisis of non-recoverable losses.”
Collingwood, like many if not all municipalities, is facing lost revenue from public transit, which has been operating without charging riders for three months now. The town is also seeing a loss of interest on its accounts and investments, and is seeing some decreased revenue due to the deferral of property taxes.
Collingwood’s treasurer delivered a report to council in May estimating $440,000 in losses this year for the town due to COVID-19. In June, the treasurer reported the town was facing a $240,000 deficit for 2020 due to revenue losses.
Mayor Brian Saunderson said governments of all levels need to work together to recover from the financial consequences of the pandemic.
“This is no time to start cutting back vital municipal services or shelving infrastructure projects that will drive our recovery,” said Saunderson. “Without emergency funding, municipal leaders are out of acceptable options.”
