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| City of Prince Rupert CFO Corinne Bomben is preparing a 2020 budget update set for early fall |
The need for an amendment was something that was noted back in June when City Council adopted the 2020 budget, her findings for the fall set to provide some clarity on the financial themes and revenue impacts for the city as a result of the COVID-19 virus.
The report one destined to provide for some conversation for the municipal officials.
Ms. Corinne Bomben offered up that blue print for the upcoming months in response to a query from Councillor Blair Mirau.
"We adopted the last budget under the impression that we were going to have to make an amendment given the signifiant impact that COVID-19 has had on the budget. I'm wondering if you guys have a rough time frame on to when that Budget amendment will be brought back to Council."
In reply the CFO observed that the work is still underway
"We are in the process of having a Five Year Financial Plan Budget Amendment scheduled for September, we believe maybe pushed to the beginning of October"
Councillor Randhawa followed up with a question related to some of the potential revenue losses to date, with Ms. Bomben noting that some costs have been cut where they can, noting however that many of the elements where losses are currently being realized are among essential services.
"Well, there's no changes that we can really make to the budget necessarily right now, cause a lot of our costs are essential services ... the airport ferry is one of the other ones that we've lost revenues in, but we've still maintained the operation mainly for things like emergency services. Keeping the airport open for any of the medevac services that sort of thing. So, we've cut costs already where we possibly can."
As for the financial impact Ms. Bomben offered up a thumbnail guide to the hit on revenues the city has faced and the measures taken.
"The revenue impacts are definitely being felt for us, it's not going to change taxation for this year, what we're doing is that we're trying to modify some of our service delivery where we can right now, in order to stop some of the bleeding as best we can. What possibly would end up happening is that we would end up being in a bit of a deficit this year. But fortunately for us we're not a profit driven organization. In which case we're not going to post anything like the losses like a private enterprise would, because we're generally supposed to be covering costs"
Towards options for the review of the fall, she offered up a few themes being explored.
"Now obviously taxation is our last item basically to balance our budget and because our revenues are depleted right, we're hoping that some of the savings that we've been able to garner in some of the other areas will offset part of it"
As for the June variance report delivered previous, Ms. Bomben observed that the financial results of June, were much the same as they have been over the last few months previous, given that most COVID restrictions and transition to essential services that are still in place.
Among some of the other highlights of the report, was a review of the progress on capital work projects that are now under way.
Ms. Bomben also noted that the City could now consider the prospective loan bylaws for the Woodworth Dam and Ridley Island landfill site projects; that after the Alternative Approval Process came to an in late July.
We outlined more on that initiative on Thursday, providing some background on the path that delivered the ability to move forward on the two infrastructure loans.
You can review her report to Council from the City's Video Archive, starting at the 59 minute mark.
You can explore more notes on budget themes from our archive page here.
A wider overview of Monday's Council Session can be explored from our Council Timeline Feature as well as our Council Session Archive.
Further background on past Council discussion themes is available from our Council Discussion Archive.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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