Ottawa gets another $34M in pandemic help

The City of Ottawa has learned it will receive another $34 million from the federal and provincial governments to offset the mounting costof the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ontario governmentannounced $4 billion in July formunicipalities struggling with steep drops in transit ridership and recreation fees, while they paymore forpublic health and cleaning. Of the first $1.6 billion disbursed in August, Ottawa received a $124-million share, covering about two-thirds of its projected deficit for 2020.

• City to get $124M in pandemic support

Long-awaited second allocations totalling $695 million were announced Wednesday, at a time when many of Ontario's 444municipalities, which aren't legally allowed to run deficits,are finalizingtheir 2021 budgets.

The City of Ottawa learned it would receive $13.4 millionto help cover its deficit for 2020, plus another$20.9 million for 2021.

• City budget approved amid concerns over policing, transit

The Ontario government also said it would provide more details in January about another$1.3 billion for transit systems. Transit losses account forthe greatest source of financial pressure on the city,with ridership sitting at just 28 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Ottawa's chief financial officer Wendy Stephansonindicatedthe city would receive $150 million more toward transit costs, part of which would cover expenses from2020.

City 'made whole'

With this latest news, Stephanson andMayor Jim Watson say the city's $57.6-million gap in 2020 has been bridged. Watson thanked the federal and provincial governments for their help.

"Mayor Watson isvery pleasedthat the City of Ottawa has been made whole for 2020in relation to COVID-19 financialpressures, both onthe transit and municipal streamsof the Safe Restart funding," wrote his press secretary Patrick Champagne.

Watson had said he expected the upper levels of government to come through with a bailout. Looking ahead, he and city staffalso expectthe federal and provincial governmentsto cover the$153-million shortfall projectedfor2021, and this announcement does include a "down payment"toward that, Stephanson noted.

Money to cover public health costs is being allocated separately, and Watson hopes for good news on that front early in the new year.

Ottawa city council will hold a special meeting Friday to talk about applying formoney under yet another COVID-19 program, this one aimed atquickinfrastructure projects such as building trails and retrofitting buildings.