The Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM) is hoping the province will consider seasonal visitors and tourism impacts in its second round of COVID-relief funding.
“This is something that the province often forgets with all of our vacation areas,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever at a committee of the whole meeting held earlier this week. "A lot of the costs of dealing with tourism are borne by our local ratepayers and it shouldn't be that way."
“The tourists are contributing to Ontario's economy as a whole and we should be getting some help from the province to deal with them,” he added.
TBM was informed via a letter from Steve Clark, the minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, that the municipality will be receiving $493,500 in COVID-relief funding through the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement Funding.
On July 27, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing announced the Ontario government had secured $4 billion in emergency assistance.
The funding will be released in two streams - $2 billion for operating pressures and $2 billion to support transit systems.
Under the municipal operating stream, $1.39 billion is available to Ontario’s 444 municipalities to “address operating pressures and local needs.”
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will be rolling the funding out in two phases.
The first phase will see 50 per cent of the funds dispersed to every municipality, allocated on a per-household basis.
However, TBM staff and council members say, while basing the rate on households is better than by population, it still may not cover the true number of people the municipality is providing services for.
“A lot of staycationers are coming up here and that's adding to our cost structure,” said TBM councillor Rob Sampson. “So, I'm just wondering whether a letter from the mayor back to the province might be in order to remind them that that staycation activity in the past, and certainly now in the COVID-environment, has had a huge impact on our cost structure.”
According to Soever, there are 8,210 households registered in the municipality this year.
“Certainly, the costs that we have seen are not just related to households, it is related to an influx of friends or visitors that we have seen to the area,” said Ruth Prince, director of finance and IT services/treasurer for TBM.
TBM staff had brought the initial financial impact to council in a staff report FAF.20.100, entitled “2020 Year-End Variance Analysis”, which outlined a potential shortfall in the town budget of $699,025.
The staff report provides insight into the town’s COVID expenses, which include: $50,000 for the establishment of the Community Task Force; $50,000 for recovery and reopening; $29,500 for Bruce and Marsh Street; $30,000 for the Ambassador Program, $40,000 for parks site management; $160,000 for bylaw enforcement; $10,000 for PPE; and $37,100 to reopen the Tomahawk Golf Course.
Essentially, with the phase-one emergency funds in pocket, the town is looking at a potential shortfall of $205,525.
"In our case, a lot of the people that are coming into our municipality are bringing their own food, or buying fast food from outlets outside of our municipality, bringing it in and leaving behind the garbage, which we then have to deal with,” said TBM Deputy Mayor Rob Potter.
“Even if they put it in a garbage can, we're still the ones who have to deal with it. So, I think we should make sure that the ministry is aware that it isn't always a great help to our local economy within our town, although our regional economy certainly does benefit,” he continued.
Funds from phase one are expected to be received by TBM in September.
The municipality will be required to report back to the province by March 2021 with details on its 2020 COVID operating costs and pressures, as well as the town’s overall 2020 financial position and the use of the phase-one provincial funds.
In phase two of the funding program, the remaining 50 per cent of funds will be provided only to the municipalities that are able to demonstrate that 2020 COVID operating costs and pressures exceed their phase-one, per-household allocation.
At the council meeting held on Tuesday, council directed mayor Soever to correspond with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to provide information regarding the influx of visitors to TBM because of COVID-19 and suggest that the phase-two funding take this into consideration.
In order to qualify for additional funding in phase two of the Safe Restart Funding, TBM will be required to submit a formal application to the ministry by Oct. 30.
The application will include information and measures the municipality has undertaken to reduce financial pressures; how the municipality applied or plans to spend phase one funding; a year-end forecast of COVID expenses and pressures; actual impacts as of Sept. 30; a treasure's statement on accuracy of reporting; and a resolution of council seeking funding.
The municipalities that are approved for the second wave of emergency funding will be informed by the end of the year, with funds expected to be in-hand by early 2021.
TBM staff will be bringing an updated report on COVID-related financial impacts to the Committee of the Whole meeting scheduled for Sept. 22.
The staff report is expected to inform council on how to proceed with its phase-two funding application.
