File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

COVID-19

Kamloops council pushes projects forward to patch $5M COVID-19-generated hole in 2020 budget

Apr 21, 2020 | 4:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops council has deferred a series of planned projects to 2021 as a way of shrinking a $5 million hole blown in this year’s budget by COVID-19.

“We take no pleasure in the kinds of decisions that we need to make. Every one of the initiatives that may be impacted by decisions that council will make are initiatives that are important to us, to this council and to this community,” noted Mayor Ken Christian as council discussed proposals to bring the City’s books back to balance. “But we find ourselves in a circumstance that we hadn’t envisioned.”

Director of Corporate Services Kathy Humphrey told council revenue projections are down by more than $12 million if COVID-19-related restrictions continue to the end of September. Layoffs and facility closures are predicted to cut expenses to the tune of $7 million in the same time frame.

That means council was faced with making up $5 million to balance its budget.

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“We can knowingly enter this discussion with the grim reality that we’re not going to make everybody happy,” said Christian. “It will either be people in a particular community or people in a activity that are going to feel somewhat left out by decisions that we have to make.”

Rather than cutting projects, councillors decided to push them.

Council began by deferring five previously-approved supplemental items, including a transit expansion and an RCMP support employee, to 2021. That resulted in a saving of $755,000 and a drop in the average household tax increase from the initial 2.97 per cent to 2.29 per cent.

Next, council moved to defer a list of capital projects and improvements to find another $4.3 million in savings this year. Those projects include hundreds of thousands in active transportation projects, a $750,000 streetscape in the 500-block of Victoria Street and renovations to the Old Courthouse.

The City will also delay a $600,000 replacement for the track at Hillside Stadium until next year, giving the City more financial breathing room if COVID-19 restrictions carry on well into the fall.

A move to also delay the massive renovation project at the Tournament Capital Centre was defeated, and a push by Councillor Denis Walsh to cut deeper did not move ahead.

“I think we should be digging a little deeper. I mean, I don’t want to cut service levels and I don’t want to see people laid off but, given these extraordinary times… I think we need to reduce our expenditures to align with the revenues,” said Walsh.

While the province has authorized municipalities to borrow from capital reserves to balance operating budgets, Humphrey told council staff don’t believe that is necessary.

“We don’t actually have to pull from reserves if we don’t want to,” she said. “We just basically lose money from gaming and then we don’t spend money out of gaming, as an example. So we tried to match where the revenue source was to where we are proposing that the expenditures be cut.”

Funds from gaming and community works grants will be lower, but Humphrey says projects funded through those sources will be deferred as well.

Having brought the 2020 budget back into balance, Humphrey warned council not to think its belt-tightening work is done.

“This is not a short-term problem,” she said. “There are short-term components of it, but I think the longer term impacts are really what we need to plan for and make sure that the City is set up and in a position to support the community and the essential services that the community wants through the next few years.”