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Ford announces $1.6B plan

A smiling Doug Ford announced Wednesday that his government is providing up to $1.6 billion to Ontario municipalities struggling with COVID-19-related budget pressures as part of the first round of funding available through the federal-provincial-territorial Safe Restart Agreement.

In the fall, the 444 municipalities in Ontario will receive $695 million, allocated on a per-household basis, “to help address municipal operating pressures related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to an Ontario government news release.

Another $660 million will go to the 110 cities with transit systems, to help cover revenue from lower ridership and additional costs brought on by the pandemic. They will all receive a base amount, with additional allocations based on ridership.

The final $212 million in the first round of funding will go to municipal service managers and Indigenous housing partners through the Social Services Relief Fund.

“This investment can help them protect homeless shelter staff and residents, expand rent support programming and create longer-term housing solutions,” the release says.

Ottawa is slated to receive more than $124 million — $49.3 million in municipal funding and almost $75 million in transit funding.

In a memo to his council colleagues, Mayor Jim Watson said these amounts “represent a very significant down payment on the City of Ottawa’s 2020 projected fiscal shortfall of $192 million, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

A process for accessing additional funding has been laid out by the province, said Watson, “and I look forward to continuing to work closely with the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, all Members of Council and the City’s senior leadership team to secure the funding required to make the City whole on its COVID-19 fiscal deficit.”

As laid out by the province Wednesday, the second round of Safe Restart funding in Ontario will have more strings attached — an additional $695 million will be made available to cities “after municipalities have provided the province with information on their estimated COVID-19 related financial pressures,” while additional transit funding will require cities “to work with the province to achieve shared transit objectives.”

Under the $19-billion Safe Restart Agreement, Ontario gets more than $7 billion “in funding and in-kind supports,” the province says. Four billion has been earmarked for Ontario municipalities and transit agencies.

Meanwhile, the provincial government is now predicting a $38.5-billion deficit for 2020-21 — up from a $20.5-billion deficit forecast at the end of March, largely due to higher costs for COVID-19 relief, Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips said Wednesday in a quarterly fiscal update.

The original $17-billion COVID-19 response plan announced on March 25 has grown to more than $30 billion, the minister said.

“Since we announced that initial $17-billion response, a lot has changed,” Phillips said Wednesday.

Provincial tax deferrals are also being extended to Oct. 1, Phillips announced.

The next fiscal update will come in the provincial budget, scheduled for delivery no later than Nov. 15. tblewett@postmedia.com