City facing $1.9-million tax-supported deficit from 2023

THUNDER BAY — The office of the city treasurer is recommending spending $1 million from Thunder Bay’s WSIB reserve to help cover a portion of the municipality’s $1.9-million 2023 tax-supported operating deficit.

The deficit represents a 0.8 per cent share of the Thunder Bay’s $218.4 million 2023 municipal tax levy.

The remaining $900,000 would be transferred from the stabilization reserve.

The biggest chunk of the deficit appears to come from corporate expenditures, which totalled over $4.7 million more than what was budgeted for, according to a report expected to be presented to city council during Monday night’s committee of the whole meeting.

Thunder Bay Police Services presented $2.8 million in overspending to the budget, which could have been considerably higher if not for $500,000 in provincial grants.

The embattled Thunder Bay Police Services Board cost the city $300,000 more than planned, mostly due to higher legal costs.

The city’s recreation and culture department had a $1.1-million shortfall blamed on increases to the non-affiliate pay grid and major maintenance projects at the Canada Games Complex, Fort William Stadium and Port Arthur Stadium.

Also on the negative side of the ledger was Thunder Bay Fire Rescue, which had an unfavourable variance of $800,000, and the engineering and operations department came up $900,000 short, mainly due to higher expenditures on road surface maintenance, traffic control, and street lighting contract services needed because of significant staff shortages.

Favourable tax-supported variances included corporate revenue ($2.9 million), corporate information technology ($500,000), Superior North EMS ($600,000), child care ($700,000), licensing and enforcement ($500,000) and long-term care and senior services ($900,000).

Rate-supported operations had an overall favourable variance of $1.5 million.

The extra money is expected to be transferred to respective reserve funds in accordance with city bylaws.

The city’s tax-supported reserve and reserve fund balance now sits at $186.6 million, a growth of $18.4 million over 2022.