MONTREAL -- The City of Montreal is rolling out a plan to reduce spending as it works to curb the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and executive committee president Benoit Dorais presented a first overview of the plan on Thursday.
The city is projecting a loss of revenue of between $93 million and $281.3 million, stressing that the scenario is just a hypothesis and will be adjusted in the coming months when the real impact of the crisis is made clear.
That revenue would typically be derived from residential taxes, parking fees, permits and admission fees for sports and cultural facilities, among other measures.
The Montreal agglomeration is also taking a hit from the decrease in ridership on the regional public transit network (ARTM), said Dorais.
“The city cannot, on its own, absorb the financial impact associated with the pandemic and the significant shortfall linked to the drop in traffic at ARTM,” he said, adding that it’s an additional loss for the city of between $154 million and $244 million.
Plante said her administration will be seeking financial assistance from the provincial and federal governments to help cover those losses.
The city does have some help, though, thanks to a budget surplus of $251 million from last year.
“This good management allows us today to act quickly to limit the negative impacts, not only on the city's finances but also on the Montreal population,” said Dorais.
Services to citizens will not be affected, said Plante, who said she spoke with borough mayors on Thursday and they all agreed with that conclusion.
The Plante administration said that 13 temporary control measures are expected to save $123.4 million this year, including a hiring freeze and a freeze of $9 million in contingency spending.
Boroughs will be required to come up with a detailed plan in the coming weeks to show how they will save money to help mitigate the economic losses, said Dorais.
“Collectively, we will get through this crisis,” he said.
