City of Thunder Bay projects $8.4M shortfall from COVID-19 in 2021 budget

Thunder Bay city administration is projecting an $8.4-million shortfall in the 2021 operating budget due to lost revenues and costs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, but there's hope more funding from the federal and provincial governments could lower the final amount.

"It is an estimate," Linda Evans, city treasurer, said. "Forecasting is all about our best information at a point in time."

"The provincial restrictions that they were based on have changed," she said. "As a result, we know that these estimates are going to change, so we were comfortable with providing these estimates at the point in time that we provided them, and of course they will be refined."

According to a report presented to council on August 24, the projections assume some provincial restrictions will remain in place throughout 2021.

Those will continue to have an impact on transit, parking, and other user fees, for example.

Further, the report assumes a 50 per cent drop in casino revenues, increased costs for child care and long-term care staffing and cleaning.

The city recently received $9.4 million in COVID-19 relief funding, which Evans said will go towards mitigating the impact the pandemic is having on the 2020 budget.

"I'm hoping to bring this information at the end of October to council, when we'll have a good sense of what our 2020 COVID costs will be," she said. "We'll use the $9.4 million to offset those costs, and we'll have a better understanding of what will be available to offset our 2021 expenses."