Image Credit: City of Kamloops

By James Peters

COVID-19

Kamloops council reconvenes, mulls impact of COVID-19 on 2020 budget

Apr 7, 2020 | 4:55 PM

KAMLOOPS — The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every part of the City of Kamloops’s operations — and it may blow a multi-million dollar hole in the 2020 budget.

Kamloops council held its first council meeting in nearly one month Tuesday (Apr. 7). Due to physical distancing measures, three councillors and Mayor Ken Christian sat in council chambers while five councillors attended from home via video link.

They heard Corporate Services Director Kathy Humphrey say her department is preparing to completely remake this year’s budget.

“It is quite crazy having spent 10 months doing a budget to redo it in a week,” Humphrey said.

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The budget is being impacted by both a loss of revenue and a savings gleaned from measures taken to shrink the City’s footprint. Humphrey says revenues are down largely because recreational facilities are closed and fees for transit and parking have been suspended.

“The expense reduction is things like wages, things like materials and supplies, moneys paid to contractors — particularly in the facilities that are already closed,” she said. “But, as you can see, the loss of revenues exceeds the amount that we are saving, leaving us with about a $3.7 million deficit in our budget.”

Humphrey presented council with a pair of scenarios — one in which restrictions and closures remain in place for three months (Scenario 1) and another in which the restrictions are in place for six months (Scenario 2).

In Scenario 1, Humphrey says the balance of changes in revenue and expenses will result in a $3.7 million budget shortfall. In Scenario 2, the balance would result in a $6.2 million shortfall.

Image Credit: City of Kamloops

Council tasked Humphrey with coming up with a series of options that would lead to a balanced budget, including delaying supplemental expenditures and finding projects that could be put off to future years. Humphrey will present her findings at a council meeting on April 21.

And while the City of Kamloops will suffer, councillors said they realize residents will be suffering as well, and that led the discussion to the possibility of deferring property taxes.

“You effectively put everything but housing and food on the back burner. This concerns me from the perspective of us as a city in how people may approach their utility bills and/or paying their taxes,” said Councillor Dieter Dudy.

“We’re losing revenues on everything from transit fares to recreational fees, all kinds of things, and really, the property taxes are what keeps our city running. As much as we might like to defer everybody’s property taxes, it’s just not a possibility,” noted Councillor Kathy Sinclair.

“When this is over, we have to be there. People are looking for us now to lead, but they’re really going to be looking for us when this is over,” said Councillor Dale Bass. “So I’m balancing off delaying capital projects with economic [stimulus].”

The impact of COVID-19 will likely be discussed at every meeting for the forseeable future — including a newly-scheduled meeting next Wednesday, April 15.