The city's lost dollars from shared advertising and concession revenues at municipal facilities due to COVID-19 closures and relief provisions is just shy of a half-million dollars, according to a staff report.
Councillors have received details on how the coronavirus continues to affect the city's bottom line.
Dawn McAlpine, the city's general manager of community and corporate services, pegged the financial figure at approximately $477,000.
On Monday night, council approved a motion offering some relief due to COVID-related closures at various city-owned facilities, where commercial or other organizations have operations and have been unable to conduct business or generate revenue to offset costs.
Examples include commercial leases of city-owned property, such as the convenience store at Barrie Transit Terminal, and facility use agreements where a fee is paid to the city, such as the Barrie Colts at Sadlon Arena for the hockey team and office space, and for not-for-profit, charitable groups and other local governments.
McAlpine's report recommended some relief due to COVID-19 related to the closure of various city-owned facilities and spaces where commercial or other organizations/entities have operations and have been unable to conduct business or generate revenues to offset their costs.
"The impact has been calculated assuming the eligibility criteria can be met and using the five months that are currently included in the CECRA (Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance) program or the applicable portion of the season," McAlpine said in the report.
CECRA provides emergency commercial rent assistance for small businesses and commercial landlords experiencing financial difficulties during COVID-19.
"As 2020 departmental budgets were prepared assuming these revenues will be received, the relief provisions will result in a reduction in offsetting revenues for the subject departments and would contribute to a potential year-end deficit, if COVID-19 funding from other levels of government is insufficient to address these and other revenue losses," McAlpine said in the report.
Unrecovered losses would be funded first from the tax stabilization reserve.
As 2020 departmental budgets were prepared assuming these revenues will be received, McAlpine added, the relief provisions will result in a reduction in offsetting revenues for the affected departments and would contribute to a potential year-end deficit, if COVID funding from other levels of government is insufficient to address these and other revenue losses.
In June, the city extended relief to the Barrie Colts/Horsepower Sports and Entertainment Group following the Ontario Hockey League's cancellation of the tail end of last season. The city opted not to collect rent with Sadlon Arena not being used.
In the Colts' situation, the organization does not have to pay rent while Sadlon Arena is closed.
"It is anticipated that the Barrie Colts will be limited in terms of the number of spectators and resulting revenues from tickets, concessions, and advertising within the facility for a significant, if not all of the season," McAlpine says in her report.
"To provide the Colts with certainty related to their operating costs in this scenario, the above arrangements are recommended to remain in place until July 1, 2021 and at that time the original payment terms would become payable again," she added.
Since that time, other businesses and organizations that do business with the city have requested similar agreements.
Proposed relief measures for other organizations include a 25 per cent reduction on rent for commercial leases in city-owned facilities from April to August, or if CECRA funding is extended. Those organizations must show that they've had a 50 per cent reduction in revenues due to COVID-19 in comparison to the same months of the previous year, and are in good standing as of April 1, 2020.
For not-for-profit and charitable groups that have agreements to use municipal buildings, fees would be reduced on a pro-rated basis for the portion of the year where the buildings were closed.
