(File Photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Melfort Council

City of Melfort approves new measures to help soften financial blow to residents during pandemic

Apr 7, 2020 | 9:15 AM

The City of Melfort has implemented some new measures to help soften the blow of the COVID-19 pandemic financially for residents.

At their Regular Council Meeting held on Monday, April 6 via video conference, Council approved six new measures that will allow residents a bit more time to pay some of their fees to the city.

1. All utility disconnections will be suspended until September 30, 2020.
2. Late payment charges will be suspended on all utility accounts until September 30, 2020.
3. Non-sufficient funds charges on payments for property tax and utilities will be suspended until September 30, 2020.
4. The Tax Penalty Bylaw will be amended to provide property owners with and additional three months (to September 30, 2020) to pay without incurring penalties on their 2020 current taxes.
5. The Tax Penalty Bylaw will be amended to suspend penalties on tax arrears from April 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020.
6. The tax enforcement process will be delayed for a three-month period to June 30, 2020, for the application of tax liens and the six month notice of arrears.

Mayor Rick Lang said the measures should help people affected by the pandemic, including those with a business that had to close its doors, or someone who works for a business that had to close it’s doors.

“The revenue stream that they are used to has dried up,” Lang told northeastNOW. “And so potentially, they have no or little income coming in.”

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Lang said while residents are being given a grace period, he hopes those who are able to still pay those fees do so, including those on the automated payment system.

“It’s a deferred payment,” he said. “And so those payments will still be expected to be made, but hopefully by then things will change within our community and some of those people could be back to work and earning money again.”

There will be some revenue lost to the city due to these new measures in place, but Lang said they hope it won’t affect them too much.

“Our Treasurer looked at our financial situation and felt comfortable with us passing this resolution to provide this relief,” Lang said. “And it was felt that the city could handle the financial complications that will arise from passing this.”

Meanwhile, relating to the lost revenue for the city, circulated to the media was a projected loss of revenue from the city facilities that are not in use during the COVID-19 including the Northern Lights Palace Pool and Arena, the Historic Post Office, various sports fields, the campground, and Kerry Vickar Centre. The projections showed through August the City of Melfort could ultimately lose around $326,504 in revenue.

Lang said while they aren’t getting revenue from their facilities, they hope this doesn’t result in a larger tax increase next year.

“Although we’re going to lose some revenue, we’ll potentially, hopefully lose some expenses as well,” he said. “And possibly we’ll still be able to make the projected budget for those facilities.”

Another piece of fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic on the City of Melfort is that there are a few staff that have been laid off. City Manager Ryan Danberg confirmed to northeastNOW that a total of eight part-time or casual staff have been laid off. However, all full-time staff are being used on an on-call basis, and they’ve created transition teams to try and limit large gatherings between employees.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6