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The City of Regina’s budget forecast for 2021 is a cloudy one because of COVID-19.
Members of city council got a preliminary look at projections during a priorities and planning committee meeting Monday and, according to Mayor Michael Fougere, the city could face a deficit of between $6 million and $7 million.
“What (administration officials) don’t know is what will happen in the fall when we collect taxes. Will we have delinquent accounts or not?” Fougere said Tuesday during his monthly appearance on Gormley.
“So we’ll have a gap there, no doubt, given the unemployment that’s happening and the dislocation and the shutting down of the economy and trying to start it again.”
The mayor said he is not in favour of raising taxes to make up the difference.
“As we go into the future here … we can’t put the burden back on taxpayers, both commercial and the residential,” Fougere said.
“We have to be very careful. My own personal view is that we should minimize any increase or have no increase at all until we know exactly what’s happening.”
Fougere is hoping for some financial support for municipalities, as discussions continue between the province and federal government.
“Our city is feeling the heat, no question about that. I know other cities, large ones, are even in a more dire circumstance,” he said.
“A transfer from the province by way of gas tax would be the optimum way to do that … but we’ve not heard anything yet.”
Revenues were affected during the early stages of 2020 because of measures the city took — such as closing many of its facilities, not collecting transit fares and not monitoring parking meters — as part of its response to COVID-19.
