the City’s municipal budget. More specifically, the Windsor Detroit Tunnel and YQG Windsor Airport both have faced significant reductions in revenue in 2020 due to the pandemic and the resulting reduced air travel and the border restrictions imposed. As sole shareholder of these entities, these losses, while perhaps not directly reflected in the City’s operating budget, have a significant impact on the City resulting in paused dividends, the requirement for the provision of cash flow loans, and permanent and long term equity reductions that will impact future capital investments in both facilities.
Given these concerns, Administration reached out to our contacts at the Ministry and we recently received confirmation that financial relief for municipally owned GBEs (i.e. Windsor Tunnel, YQG) will be considered for funding as part of the Phase 2 Municipal Relief submissions, as such, it is Administration’s view that we should put forth all efforts to put forward a case to secure financial relief for these two entities.
As these organizations are wholly owned by the City, there is a possibility the City may need to provide them future financial assistance due to their losses in order to ensure they remain viable. To date the City is working with Windsor Detroit Borderlink Limited (WDBL) to enable a $5 million open line of credit to assist with anticipated cash flow shortfalls expected in early 2021. As the Phase 2 funding for municipal operations includes recognition of external transfers and loans, and seeks to understand what unique circumstances a municipality may have to support the need for Phase 2 funding, Administration is proposing to include the projected losses for these GBEs in our Phase 2 submission request.
While there is no guarantee that this exercise will be successful, we feel it is necessary to put forth our submission for financial relief to the Province for this unique situation.
In doing so however, and as noted above, the application process for Phase 2 funding is extremely detailed and will be very labour intensive. As such, it is administration’s recommendation that all staff efforts through early November be focused on completion of our Phase 2 application submission to the Province thereby resulting in a slight pause in the work currently underway to complete the 2021 Operating and Capital Budget. In order to do this it is proposed by Administration that the 2020 budget timelines be amended as follows to accommodate this requirement.
Operating Budget Revised Timelines
| Description | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Budget Issues DevelopmentDepartmental budget issues and COVID 19 financial impacts are developed by administration. | 07/27/20 - 09/25/20 | |
| 2. Budget Issues Review (Finance Department) | 09/28/20 - 10/16/20 | |
| 3. Phase 2 Reporting Template – Safe Restart Funding | 10/13/20 – 11/06/20 | |