Background:

On August 12, 2020, the City of Windsor received a communication letter from the office of the Minister of Transportation, Caroline Mulroney, describing the COVID-19 funding support through the Safe Restart Provincial and Federal Agreement for municipal transit pressures. This report is included in the Communications Package for the August 24, 2020 meeting as well.

Through this agreement, the Province of Ontario has secured up to $4 billion in emergency assistance to support operating financial pressures and transit system challenges for municipalities across the province due to COVID-19.

Up to $2 billion of the above stated amount has been allocated for municipal transit pressures and will be administered through a 2-phase approach. $666 million will be allocated in Phase 1 as an immediate allocation of funding whereas in Phase 2, the province will review municipal requests for additional funding.

In the lead up to this announcement, Administration has been actively monitoring and assessing the potential impacts COVID-19 has had and continues to have on the City. Through the efforts of various departments across the City, a COVID-19 2020 Year-End Financial Projects Report (Council Report: C134/2020) was presented to City Council on July 13, 2020. Contained in the report was a projected total financial impact to the City of $52.0M which was offset by various mitigation measures to date equal to $16.7M and grant funding of $5.6M, thereby reducing the projected net impact to the City to $29.7M. The Transit Windsor portion of the $29.7M in unmitigated costs noted in that report was $4.8M.

Costs reported to City Council via C134/2020, were based on June 2020 data projected to the end of December 31, 2020 and also included several assumptions made based on information available at that time. It is noted that the December 31 date for the financial impact estimate was chosen because it coincides with the City’s fiscal year end, not because COVID related costs are likely to end by that date. As the pandemic situation is evolving certain assumptions made in June 2020 differ from what is now known. The information in the June 2020 report will be updated and a further report will be provided to City Council in the Fall 2020 regarding the City’s financial impact as a result of COVID-19.

Discussion:

The Ministry of Transportation communication letter outlines the amount of Phase 1 funding allocated as well as at a high-level anticipated reporting requirements, types of eligible costs and lost revenues as well as potential expectations to qualify for Phase 2 funding. This program differs from the municipal operational pressures program, also before City Council on August 24, 2020 C166/2020, in that for Phase 2 the province has outlined in the letter a pending Transfer Payment Agreement which is expected to include required reviews and or changes to transit systems which may be required to be considered for Phase 2 funding. The municipal operational stream does not have a similar requirement.

It should also be noted that the actual costs and/or lost revenues which may be able to be claimed under the Safe Restart program has not yet been provided and may vary