City of Kawartha Lakes reallocating funds to deal with immediate needs during coronavirus pandemic

During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and state of emergency, many municipalities have had to shift spending from non-essential services to immediate needs, such as personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line staff.

In the City of Kawartha Lakes, CAO Ron Taylor figures in March and April alone the municipality spent more than $50,000 more than it normally would on PPE for workers such as paramedics.

“We have exceeded our budget by tens of thousands of dollars,” said Taylor. “I would suggest in that budget area we’ve exceeded $50,000 just to respond from a PPE perspective.”

The municipality has been moving around money to cover its costs during the pandemic.

However, the exact financial impact of the crisis is unknown at this time.

“We’re also looking at forecast revenue loss depending on how our service changes over the coming months,” added Taylor. “Some of our revenues, for example, are seasonal and summer programs and operations, so we have to do forecasting on that front. We haven’t confirmed how we are suspending services beyond June 30 at this point.”

More recently, the municipality laid off more than 200 part-time and seasonal staff while putting a hold on any summer hires for now.

Taylor told reporters on the municipality’s media teleconference on Wednesday that the move helped offset some of the losses from the closure of facilities and loss of user fees and property tax at this time.

Staff are now working on calculating the impact and their findings will be delivered to council at the next meeting on May 26.

Meanwhile, council backed the creation of two pandemic recovery task forces on Tuesday.

A pandemic impact survey will go to the business community later this week to gauge what has happened over the last six weeks and how businesses are navigating through the coronavirus crisis. The information from that survey will be included in the mandate of the economic recovery task force.

“The survey includes questions about the level of impact of COVID-19 has had on a business,” said Rebecca Mustard, manager of economic development. “It identifies the major challenges business are facing. Some are financial. Some are safety of staff. It also asks for any information a business wants to supply for the economic recovery task force.”

Mustard added that the economic development department hasn’t heard too much on if any businesses have been forced to close permanently due to the pandemic.

“As the programs continue to roll out, there’s still a lot of room for businesses to look at alternative models and try to figures this out,” she said.

The membership of the task forces and its terms of reference will be solidified at the May 26 council session.

The City of Kawartha Lakes is also staying the course on potentially reopening its boat launches, rail trail to ATV traffic and landfills on May 12.

That’s the same day the state of emergency is set to expire both provincially and locally.

If the province chooses to extend its declaration, the municipality will do the same.

“Right now those are the only local issues we have jurisdiction over,” said Mayor Andy Letham. “Most of the other non-essential services are by provincial order, so we don’t have authority to go further than that.

“If the province starts easing non-essential business restrictions on May 6, we will certainly do what we can on our end. We are waiting on the province to see where they want to go over the next couple of weeks.

“We’re just in a wait-and-see position like everyone else right now.”

Last Wednesday afternoon, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit reported 137 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the City of Kawartha Lakes. There have been 32 deaths – 28 associated with Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon.