Summerside ends 2019 with deficit

Unexpected expenses and lower wind energy revenues are being blamed for the City of Summerside ending the year in the red.

The city's deficit will be more than $2 million.

Deputy Mayor Norma McColeman chairs the financial services committee.

"This year, one example would be the street sweeper. Three hundred thousand dollars was quite a hit to take," said McColeman.

"And then, when some of our capital projects come in, we run into that. When we run into any of the aftermath and the restoration and cleanup from tropical storm Dorian, there was a lot of unexpected things there that really bit into the actual projections that we had."

City wants province to pay

McColeman said the city does hope to recoup some of the expenses from the Dorian cleanup from the province.

The city is expecting about $500,000 less in wind energy revenue than originally anticipated. That's because of lower wind levels as well as damage to two turbines also caused by post-tropical storm Dorian.

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