The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed some potential financial pitfalls for many Ontario cities, including Windsor.
Members of the Ontario Large Urban Mayors' Caucus, which consists of mayors of Ontario cities with at least 100,000 people, say that municipalities are losing large chunks of revenue thanks to the downturn brought by the coronavirus crisis. The caucus has called on the federal government to work with the provinces on emergency funding, to avoid deep cuts to services and further layoffs.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is a member of the caucus. He told BlackburnNewsWindsor.com that larger cities like Toronto and Ottawa will go to the federal government for help. Without such help, cities may need to cut services or personnel, or raise taxes.
"The big city mayors have asked the federal government for between $10 billion and $15 billion of support just to fund immediate issues that exist," said Dilkens.
Dilkens estimated that the city of Windsor has lost $11 million in revenue since the pandemic was declared a month and a half ago. While that may seem like peanuts in comparison to major centres like Toronto, the mayor said the loss of major moneymakers looms large.
"Every day that the casino is closed and there's no revenue stream coming from there, or the airport, or low traffic at the tunnel, every day there are issues over at EnWin with folks unable to pay their bill, all that leads to a series of unfortunate events that we're going to have to deal with," said Dilkens.
The city of Windsor has already issued temporary layoffs to hundreds of city employees while calling back others to perform essential tasks.
Dilkens is confident that basic city services, such as police, fire, EMS, garbage collection and others will be fine, but other services could be called into question should the pandemic continue for a long period of time, if help from the federal government does not come through.
"Families will be deciding whether they'll be able to afford a vacation, the city is going to decide whether we can afford certain things that we're used to doing, and businesses will be deciding whether to make other investments, or whether they have to fund operations with plans that they had moving into the future," said Dilkens.
-With files from Adelle Loiselle