As municipalities struggle financially during the pandemic, one organization says cities and towns need more help to deal with it.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal government would fast-track $2.2 billion in infrastructure funding through the Gas Tax Fund.
The executive director of the Union of the Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) said it is great to hear the prime minister acknowledge the financial crisis facing municipalities.
But Margot Cragg said fast-tracking infrastructure funding does not fix the problem because it is not new money.
“This is money that’s already accounted for in municipal budgets and it specifically doesn’t address the real problem, i.e. a great big hole in operations,” said Cragg.
Cragg said some communities have been forced to slash services to “bail water out of their boats.” She said that hurts citizens and the local economic recovery we all need.
She said municipalities are appealing for emergency operating funding to keep their services going.
“Municipalities are facing a big hole in their operating funds, whether it’s for transit, their recreation facilities that are closed, cancelling their summer programming, laying off staff, deferring capital projects,” said Cragg.
Cragg noted municipalities across the country are facing an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion in non-recoverable losses as a result of the pandemic.
There has been some discussion about giving municipalities the ability to run deficits, but Cragg said that does not work.
“That just means municipalities would have to service it with property tax levies or cutbacks to frontline services or shelving infrastructures projects,” she said. “At the end of the day, there’s no economic recovery without support municipalities out of this crisis.”
During Monday’s announcement, Trudeau said the Liberal government will keep working with provinces and territories to find more ways to support municipalities, among other things.
“This is a start. We know there’s more to be done to support municipalities and to support the entire reopening process,” he said.
Follow
