August 12, 2020

107-2020-3242

Mayor Drew Dilkins
City of Windsor
350 City Hall Square, PO Box 1607
Windsor ON N9A 6S1

Dear Mayor Dilkins:

Municipalities play a key role in delivering services that people across Ontario rely on and are the frontlines of a safe reopening of the economy. Our government recognizes that municipalities have sustained significant financial pressures as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and need financial support to ensure they can continue to deliver important services while minimizing the spread of COVID-19.

On July 27, 2020, as part of the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement, the Ontario government announced that it had secured up to $4 billion in one-time emergency assistance to provide Ontario’s 444 municipalities with the support they need to respond to COVID-19 and deliver the critical services people rely on every day.

This investment will provide support to municipalities and municipal transit systems to help them deal with financial pressures related to COVID-19, maintain critical services and protect vulnerable people as the province safely and gradually opens. It includes:

The Honourable Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, will provide more information on the funding to support municipal operating pressures.

Up to $2 billion will be available to Ontario’s municipalities to address transit pressures. Funding will be allocated in two phases: In Phase 1, $666 million will be allocated to municipalities with transit systems to help provide immediate relief from the financial pressures of COVID-19; In Phase 2, the balance will be available for municipalities with transit systems to address the ongoing financial pressures of COVID-19 until the end of the provincial fiscal year, or March 31, 2021. A two-phased approach will provide the flexibility to address actual municipal transit pressures, including any impacts of a potential second wave of COVID-19.