Windsor mayor says city left 'high and dry' by province, feds on $29M budget gap

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkenssaid taxpayers will suffer as a result of the federal and provincial government choosing to not financially helpmunicipalities cope with budget pressures caused by COVID-19.

Dilkens released a statement via email Wednesday following a conference call with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the same day the federal government released itsfiscal "snapshot" a status report on where things stand after four months of the pandemic.

Thesnapshot shows the federal government's deficit is expected to hit $343 billion this year, a figure that is largely due to pandemic-related support programs.

"Leaving municipalities high and dry just as the economy starts to recover will have a dramatic impact on local economic recovery," the statement from Dilkens reads.

Dilkens said that the city was able tofind $17 million in savings within their internal budgets, but there is still a significant deficit that he "expects the higher orders of government to cover."

In the following days, Dilkens said he will reach out to the region's local members of parliament to get their stance.

A report by deputy treasurer Tony Ardovini will go before council next Monday, which estimates the financial impact of COVID-19 to be to be about $29.7 million this year.

Prior to the meeting, Dilkens had hoped that Wednesday's funding announcement would help the city.

"Today we really hope to hear something positive both from federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and later today from the premier andminister of municipalaffairs," Dilkens said on CBC's Windsor Morning.

"The actual hole was really hovering around $50 million. We've been able to mitigate some expenses internally that brought us down to around the $30 millionrange," said Dilkens.

"So I would expect that they would come forward and a significant portion of that amount should be covered because they aren't expenses that were frivolous, they were necessary."

Dilkens said the large deficit projected for Windsor this year is due to the major shortfalls in revenue streams, like from the casino, airport and tunnel, and due to increased expenses that COVID-19 has caused.

The mayor said the shortfalls would meana significant increase to taxes of about seven per cent and cause the cancellationof projects which "would be huge." The mayor does not want the city to have to explore either of these options.

"We're still in a good position because of thediscipline we've employed over the last 15 years," said Dilkens. "But can't weatherthe storm forever."

Here's some of the departments expecting major deficits this year:

• Recreation & Culture $5.2M deficit
• Transit Services $4.8M deficit
• Parks & Facility Operations $3.8M deficit
• Facility Operations $3.9M deficit
• On/Off Street Parking Operating Reserve $1.5M deficit
• Parking Enforcement $1.3M deficit
• Huron Lodge $860,000 deficit
• Windsor Fire & Rescue$746,000 deficit
• Housing & Children's Services $720,000 deficit
• Council Services $715,000 deficit
• YQG and Windsor Detroit Border Link Dividends $2M deficit
• OLGC Casino Revenue $6.6M deficit

Thereport estimates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to be over by 2020, but say the financial implications could be worse if business doesn't return to normal.

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