The City of North Battleford will receive more than $850,000 to help offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Josh Ryan

Restart funding

North Battleford allocated nearly $854,000 of provincial funding

Sep 10, 2020 | 5:53 PM

This week, municipalities across Saskatchewan received funding from the Safe Restart Canada Plan, which included nearly a million dollars for North Battleford.

The city was allocated $853,947 of the $70,000,000 available to the province. Mayor Ryan Bater said he and council weren’t sure of what kind of formula the province would be using, outside of expecting some assistance, but they are grateful for the commitment from both orders of government. The funding comes as a help to many municipalities, but Bater said it’s particularly helpful to this city.

“Because we’re dealing with major revenue shortfalls as a result of the pandemic,” Bater said. “And this will help tremendously.”

The biggest challenge from a financial perspective moving forward for the city will be reduced revenues at recreation facilities. Major events aren’t happening, such as hockey tournaments and weddings. All are a particularly big source of the lack of event rentals. Bater said this is a likely focus for the funding, or perhaps creating a reserve, but nothing has been decided.

“Council has to discuss how to use these funds, but I think the intention is to offset the impact of the pandemic on the municipality,” he said. “I think this is really to make up for those lost revenues.”

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RIght now, the city can learn how the market reacts, with these facilities slowly opening up. Administration is collecting data how much revenue is currently being lost on the aquatic centre and will do so on the field house when it opens. Bater said this will inform them of how best to serve taxpayers, as that will be key moving forward managing the pandemic’s effects.

“We keep our facilities sustainable and open, but we diminish the tax impact on people,” he said.

One surprising element of the funding allocation was the omission of North Battleford from transit funding, despite having a transit system, along with cities like Swift Current and Yorkton. Bater said they were confused as to why they were omitted and having talked with other mayors, they are all working with the MLA offices to understand why this was the case.

“Just to try to understand why that omission is there, and whether that’s a permanent omission or not,” he said.

Getting through the pandemic still holds plenty of uncertainty. Bater said the overall impact will mean months and potential years of adjustment ahead, as they try to maintain a level of service that the region expects. However, he believes the funds from the government will provide a much needed boost.

“Just exactly how long and how big of a help it is, we’re still working on that,” he said.

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports