Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is throwing cold water on a plan to have the federal and provincial governments pay just two-thirds of the city's expected $30 million shortfall this year.
Concerned about the lack of an agreement between senior governments to help cities and towns across the country, Dilkens testified before the Provincial Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs Tuesday morning.
Windsor, and municipalities across Canada, have watched their revenues shrink dramatically because of the pandemic, while costs incurred for things like personal protective equipment have increased.
The loss from Caesars Windsor is $12- million alone. Dilkens told the committee just to cover that loss would equal a three per cent rise in property taxes.
Ottawa has offered $14 billion to help municipalities, but Queen's Park is not satisfied with how much it would come to Ontario. One idea emanating from the federal level is having all three levels of governments split the cost evenly three ways.
However, Dilkens told the committee that would only prolong the pain.
"Even, as was suggested, that we could use reserves," he explained. "It would be very difficult to draw that much money from a reserve without impacting future years. You can push the ball down the road a little bit, but it's going to come back at some point, and we're going to have to pay the piper.
"Some people have said, 'well, you could just take on debt," continued Dilkens. "Even if we were to entertain that, we have a higher cost of borrowing than other levels of government."
The city has found $17-million in savings and taken advantage of senior government grants totalling $5.6-million. Otherwise, it would be looking at a deficit of $54-million.
Dilkens said it would take a 7.7 per cent property tax increase to cover the entire $30-million shortfall. He has called that intolerable.
A property tax increase would also come at a difficult time for city residents. Statistics Canada's Labour Market Survey for June said Windsor had an unemployment rate of 15.2 per cent. That is down from 16.2 per cent in May, but with the loss of the third shift at the Windsor Assembly Plant last Friday, the jobless rate will not likely fall in August.
"I also look out my window here at Caesars Windsor -- over 2,000 people work in that facility, and the requirements in place, even in stage three today announced yesterday by the Premier, would make it very difficult for that facility to open," said Dilkens.
