City forecasts $92,517 operating budget surplus

A staff report outlining city financials forecasts $92,517 in operating budget surplus as of April.

The report, part of this week's council's consent agenda, outlines how this forecast was reached. 

The calculation is reached by counting $752,300 in loss of revenue and $1.45 million in COVID-19 related additional expenses, which were offset by $549,437 in cost-containment savings and $130,000 in funds from IDEA Exchange and $1,66 million in provincial funding from the safe restart agreement.

Other small variances, unrelated to COVID-19, totalled $37,483.

"Many of the cost containment strategies implemented in 2020 carried forward into the 2021 budget process and were included as one-time reductions to departmental budgets in order to bring forward an affordable 2021 tax rate increase for citizens," read the staff report.

Further, the report says, the 2021 cost-containment plan will require some flexibility and shifts in the guidelines to staff.

However, staff expect that the financial impact due to COVID-19 will still be mitigated through cost-containment savings and the provincial funding received under the safe restart agreement.

The report outlines that a majority of the $752,300 in forecasted revenue losses is a result of decreased parking revenues, reduced program revenues and decreased parking enforcement fines. 

The staff report explains that COVID-19 related costs include an estimated forecast of $862,000 due to modified program and service delivery to provide sports, recreation trails, and outdoor services under pandemic conditions and additional bylaw enforcement and operational needs. Moreover, other COVID expenses include unanticipated overtime costs relating to essential services such as Fire Suppression and information technology overages in virtual meeting software licencing, which were not budgeted for in the previous year.

The city has also found $300,000 in cost savings with IDEA Exchange closures and cost containment. Of this amount, $170,000 is requested to be transferred to the facility maintenance reserve fund to offset funding taken for the Queens Square Library roof project.

The staff report also outlines that the city is not projecting a year-end surplus or deficit for water utility operations for this reporting period.