The City of Windsor is facing a budget shortfall of about $30-million due to COVID-19.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Mayor Drew Dilkens says the original amount was $52-million but administration was able to find what he calls “internal mitigation options” that brought it down by about $17-million.
Dilkens says there's no city in the country that will be able to deal with the holes that will be left from the pandemic.
“If we had to raise $30-million, you know we're talking about the better part of an eight per cent increase on property taxes and it’s just something you'd probably never see happen,” he says.
Both the provincial and federal governments are going to have to step up to help offset expenses, according to Dilkens.
“We know that they have to come forward, they know that they have to come forward. They're sort of playing hot potato now figuring out the percentage that they're each going to provide the municipalities, but we know that this number, $30-million today will be much lower by the time we get to the finish line.”
As discussions continue, Dilkens expects the upper levels of government to be cooperative.
“Every conversation that’s going on in any of these circles right now for municipalities and amongst mayors and even the CAO level, this is what the prime number one issue on the agenda is— this and how to deal with it,” says Dilkens. “There is a bit of tug of war here but it’s just part of the system that we have so I think they'll get to the finish line, today may be a day where we get good news.”
The Large Urban Mayors' Caucus of Ontario is calling on the upper levels of government for at least $10-billion in relief funding for municipalities across the country to prevent things such as property tax increases, service cuts and user fee hikes.