Chatham-Kent officials said additional funding support from the province to help municipalities during the COVID-19 pandemic will likely go towards more personal protective equipment (PPE) and staff overtime.
On Thursday, the province announced Chatham-Kent would receive another $1.46 million to address pandemic operating costs and ensure the delivery of critical services.
CK Chief Administrative Officer Don Shropshire said he is still waiting for more details to determine if there are any restrictions on how the money is spent. He added the municipality doesn't have any specific allocations yet, adding he doesn't know what the additional expenses are going to be throughout the year because it's difficult to forecast.
Shropshire said there is no extra municipal funding built-in to this year's budget for COVID-19 expenses but there is $1.4 million left over from last year's provincial funding that could be used in 2021 to manage a possible deficit.
"We'll have about $2.8 million to be able to apply to funding. We're expecting there's still going to be PPE, there's still going to be some overtime costs. Those are the primary expenses," he said.
Shropshire said there were more than $10 million in extra expenses last year that weren't in the budget but about $2 million were saved and recovered after cutting or reducing some municipal services like arenas, pools and day camps. He said last time there was a lot of flexibility on how the money could be spent.
"We had additional costs for PPE, we had additional costs for some training, in some cases we had to modify our operational centres so people could be safe and maintain social distancing. There was also some money applied last year for some of the shortfalls in revenues," said Shropshire.
Rick Nicholls, MPP for Chatham-Kent-Leamington said the funding is being prioritized to help municipalities hardest hit by the pandemic and can be used for things like personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and bylaw enforcement. The Ontario government is providing an additional $500 million to help the province's 444 municipalities. All Ontario municipalities received their last installment of relief funding in December to ensure that no community entered 2021 facing an operating deficit from 2020.
The provincial government will provide its next update on Ontario's finances and the plan to continue the fight against COVID-19 in the 2021 Budget to be delivered no later than March 31.