Kingston city councillors will hold a special meeting this week with a mix of good and bad news in their ongoing budget battle against COVID-19.
City staff will present a comprehensive report that lays out some of the fiscal challenges for the remainder of 2020 and in future years.
Chief administrator Lanie Hurdle says the city will end the year with a projected deficit of $9.3 million, money that represents the added municipal costs of fighting the pandemic and lost revenues.
However, Hurdle says the deficit should be wiped out due to a number of cost-control measures adopted early in the pandemic such as staff layoffs, delayed hirings and cancelling the summer student program, plus an injection of coronavirus relief funding from senior governments.
“The city funding strategies combined with provincial-federal funding will enable the city to achieve a 2020 balanced budget,” Hurdle stated in her report to the Sept. 24 council meeting.
But a balanced budget doesn’t necessarily mean property taxpayers will be off the hook when the next budget year rolls around in 2021.
Hurdle warns some of the ongoing cost savings, such as delayed hiring of new staff in high-profile positions, can’t go on indefinitely as they have led to an increased workload and some projects falling by the wayside.
Key roles such as chief Kingston planner and the head of building and enforcement services remain vacant.
“Staff cannot rely on a workforce reduction as a sustainable strategy to achieve cost savings in 2021.”
Councillors had previously approved tax hikes of 2.4 percent in 2021, 2.4 percent in 2022 and 2.3 percent in 2023.
Council will be asked to reconfirm its tax targets based on a projected loss in revenues during the current COVID-19 reality and the likelihood that the city will continue to experience reduced revenue, particularly in transit, recreation and culture.
For example, Hurdle says transit ridership and revenues are trending at about 25 per cent compared with the same period in previous years, and it may take several years to build the system to pre-COVID-19 ridership levels.
In the meantime, councillors have other tough choices to make.
They will also be asked to re-think the strategic priorities they adopted earlier in their term before the pandemic.
At the facilitator-led meeting, dubbed a “strategic priorities refresh” session, Hurdle will recommend that several priorities be shelved due to a lack of funding or the inability of municipal partners to proceed at this time.
The list of projects recommended for deferral include:
- a downtown campus in partnership with St. Lawrence College
- a deep water dock for cruise ships plying the Great Lakes
- more crosswalks near schools and busy pedestrian areas
- a study on adding fluoride to drinking water
- green bins in about 20 local schools
These initiatives and others fall within council’s five main goals set in 2019. The goals are to demonstrate leadership on climate action, increase housing affordability, strengthen economic development opportunities, foster healthy citizens and vibrant spaces and to improve walkability, roads and transportation.
Hurdle says while many priorities remain active or even completed, it’s not feasible to pursue others while the pandemic response continues to dictate a large part of the municipal agenda.
Planned partnerships with schools and public health have been sidetracked due to the COVID-19 response, she added.
She says other priorities, such as expanding public transit into rural Kingston, adding more dedicated bus lanes and completing the North King’s Town secondary plan, will be delayed by a year or longer due to the pandemic.
Councillors will also be given the chance to set any new priorities that reflect community needs since the pandemic began, which may include more funding and support to address the homeless situation stemming from the Belle Park encampment.
Like most council business since the pandemic, the priority rethink meeting will be held virtually and be livestreamed from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sept. 24.
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