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City sees lower revenue in some areas in latest financial report

The city is seeing some revenues streams decline as residents take part in the city’s relief plan and defer their tax payments.

The second quarter financial report showed revenues have increased compared to the same time last year, but expenditures has also risen.

The city saw about a $10 million drop in cash when compared to the same time last year. The report showed just over $29 million in cash assets while in 2019 it was at $39 million.

The City’s Chief Financial Officer Denise MacDonald noted just under half of all residents have paid their property taxes. Normally, about 70 per cent of taxes would be collected at this point.

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“We’re seeing tax money come in and projects are being built,” Mayor Gerald Aalbers says. “We received government funding earlier than we usually do at this time of year. We’re seeing a tradeoff one-way but seeing things move the other way. We’re not seeing an excess in expenditures, but we’re also not seeing an excess of income either.”

The report also shows that 22 projects have been completed so far, 117 are currently in progress and 39 have not been started yet.

“It’s an intricate process of laying out a large puzzle on an annual basis to ensure that (a) we have the resources, (b) we have all the documents in place and (c), the most important part, the money. Administration is working really hard to deliver so that at the end of the year it should be clean-up rather than we have to carry over six or a dozen projects.”

Aalbers says the pandemic is showing an impact in their revenues as some residents choose to delay paying their property taxes, but a better understanding will come with the third quarter financial report.

“It moves us further into project being completed. We should be seeing a lot of road construction projects, to hopefully, being close to done or done. As well, taxes continue to come in on a daily basis so it will give us a much better idea by the third quarter where exactly COVID has impacted us.”

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