Wednesday, June 10, 2020

City Council hears of COVID's first bite into civic financials

City of Prince Rupert CFO
Corinne Bomben
Prince Rupert's Chief Financial Officer provided one of the first glimpses into how the COVID pandemic has had an impact on the city's revenue streams, offering up some background on the April financials at Monday's City Council session.

As part of the review which was a shorter verbal version of a wider overview provided as part of the Agenda for Monday's council session, Ms. Corinne Bomben noted that the city's Development Services revenue is down versus 2019 numbers, observing how that was due to un-budgeted building permit revenue received last year. 

She did note however, that Performance for Development services is well ahead of budget for 2020.  

One area of significant impact for the City has been found from the suspension of air service to the city in March, with the revenue stream for the Airport Ferry down close to 80,000 dollars from where it was last year..

While revenues are down, the CFO did observe that some savings have been found as the need for overtime or casual workers at the Airport has been negligible in that period.



As we noted yesterday, the Airport will reopen to travellers on June 22nd, with a range of COVID measures in place both on Digby Island, as well as for the Ferry and bus system to the airport.

When it comes to Prince Rupert Transit, with fees having been waived until the end of May there was no revenue coming in on the city's bus service. 

Because of that, it was noted in Monday's report that Transit revenue is down 33,000 dollars from levels achieved in 2019.



Over at the Recreation Centre, the City has seen a reduction in fees owing to its closure by provincial health order.  The cost of that shutdown to the city is listed as approximately $140,000 compared to revenues generated last year.

The CFO observed that as a result of the shutdown there had been reductions to overtime, or casual wage requirements at the Recreation Centre, while also reminding council that much of the last two months have beed put towards maintenance which should see a reduced period of down time when the facilities reopen.


Revenue streams may be quite grim for the Cow Bay Marina this summer
as the COVID pandemic continues to impact on BC tourism 

Not mentioned in her verbal report, but part of the data review on paper, was the fiscal picture for the Cow Bay Marina. While still early in the traditional boating season, the pandemic and ban on travel in BC waters has to date brought a decline in revenues of 6,800 dollars to date, with the to date revenue stream listed as $22,323.

However the expenses continue to roll in with the Marina expenses listings noting that at $75,300 the facility has spent almost the same amount this year, as was spent last year at this time.

The Marina had projected revenues of 219,000 dollars this year prior to the pandemic and the impact that it has had on tourism in the province. That gap in projections could grow significantly as the summer months arrive and travel continues to be reduced to North Coast waters.

Ms. Bomben also made note of the arrival of two significant streams of funding for the City, one through funds from the Northern Capital and Planning grant and the other funds towards the planned water treatment plant, with both streams of revenues forwarded to their associated capital reserve funds.

The City has received 8.5 million towards the planned Water Treatment plant, while the Province of British Columbia announced last month that it would be distributing close to 6.5 million dollars to Prince Rupert as part of the Northern Capital and planning funding.

The CFO noted that Capital projects are underway for 2020 and costs will be rolling in as the construction season progresses.

Nothing from her report seemed to capture the interest of the City Council members on the night; as none had questions for the CFO related to any of the themes she presented, or from their own reviews of the financial statements for April.

You can review that package of information below, (click on each image to enlarge):




The report to Council is available for viewing from the City's Video archive starting at the 15 minute mark.



For more notes related to Monday's Council session see our Council Timeline feature here.

Our archive of notes on Civic financials can be reviewed here, while a wider overview of past Council Discussion themes can be explored here.

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