Sudbury mayor hopeful the province, feds will pitch in to help pay municipal bills

Sudbury's mayor says it's going to take emergency funding from the government to pay the city's bills.

Brian Bigger says since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,city revenue from transit and recreational facilities has tanked, butexpenses, including paramedic services, are going up.

Bigger says between those losses and expenses, Greater Sudbury has been losing roughly $1.5 million a month since the start of the year andthe city needs help from the provincial or federal government.

In Ontario, it's illegal for municipalities to run budgetary deficits.

Greater Sudbury is among many Canadian cities looking to the provinces and the federal government for emergency funding to pay the bills during COVID-19.

Bigger was recently part of talks with the Large Urban Mayors' Caucus of Ontario, agroup representing 29 of Ontario's largest cities. They are asking the federal government for emergency funding.The caucus says that, without help, municipalities will be forced to reduce services.

"Another option is to defer capital projects as a short term response," Bigger said. "But that's not a solution, because it has a negative impact on our local economies. And we already have infrastructure gaps, as we're all well aware. And this would just set us back quite significantly."

Bigger says Sudbury's infrastructure projects are too important to defer, but the money for operational costs has to come from somewhere.

"The longer this continues,everyone across the entire community is impacted by this, one way or another. So it's going to depend on the federal and provincial government support for people and business in our communities."

While there has been no official response from the provincial or federal governments on this call for help, Bigger says "they are absolutely listening. I'm sure they understand the need to help us in the longer term. Theother alternative is going to impact the service that we deliver to the public. And that's not in the interestof the public."