North Battleford city council got its latest update on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on city finances at its meeting Monday.
Director of Finance Steve Brown provided the update in a memo to council and in a live presentation to council on the Zoom platform. Highlights are as follows:
As expected, Leisure Services revenues are down $314,000 while expenses are down $476,000 as the impact of COVID-19 is starting to show. It is expected this will be more evident in June and July with a number of revenue-generating events not going ahead.
Numbers for inter-provincial fines and tickets written by special constables are down, largely due to reduced staffing and people not ticketing due to Covid 19.
The utilities department is seeing both water and waste water revenues down. The under-variance for revenues is estimated at $50,000, but Brown expected the variance to be smaller for June and July. Again, this is attributed to COVID-19.
The wages and benefits budget, however, is coming in as expected. According to Brown’s report, wages are coming in under-budget by $229,257 largely due to reductions taken for COVID-19. The labor budget for utilities is over budget; it was explained they hired a contract manager at the Water Treatment Plant Manager, but then early in 2020 hired a manager on staff. Brown expects to see a dramatic reduction on their contract expenses from that move.
There were some pressures, but the numbers for June were balanced, said Brown. They are staying on top of the numbers month to month, and a more detailed report is to come in August.
Brown also reported some good tax enforcement news: of the properties contacted in property tax enforcement, about half had contacted City Hall and $526,000 in payment arrangements have been made as of Monday. Brown also anticipated another $100,000 in payments to be made in August.
