The city ended 2019 with a $87,000 deficit.

Budget Chief Tanya Vrebosch says among the highlights was the winter maintenance budget as costs exceeded it by over a million dollars.

“We depleted our winter reserves at the end of 2019. We spent around $300,000 over the reserve amount. We’re going to be starting 2020 with no winter reserves and that’s from January on,” she says.

She says the reserve amount was just over $750,000.

As far as the departments go General Government ended the year with a $984,000 deficit, Community Services finished with a surplus of $570,000 and Infrastructure and Operations also had a surplus of $750.
Vrebosch says the deficit amount will be taken from the reserves as the city doesn’t carry a deficit or surplus forward.

She says this is the first reported deficit since 2014.

Vrebosch says 2020 promises to be challenging.

“This year depending on how the winter goes late in the year and has gone early in 2020 and the fact we have don’t have reserves in winter maintenance and add the COVID-19 situation this is going to be the year that’s tougher for us,” she says.

(photo by station staff)

Filed under: city-of-north-bay, deficit