Taking stock

It’s been a peculiar year. A pandemic has shaped nearly every interaction—personal, social, and commercial. We remain fearful. Uncertain what the future holds for our children. How long will our lives remain on pause?

Will we slide into depression—in every sense of the word—if the prospect of a vaccine or treatment drifts further from view? Will our generation ever feel safe again? Will we ever again shake hands with a stranger? Will we hug a friend—mindful they may have hugged someone outside our bubble? Or, will we shed the shackles of caution—to resume life as it was before COVID-19—subsuming the knowledge that our risk of encountering and transmitting the virus may be amplified? Perhaps considerably so.

Six months into 2020 seems a point we can begin to take stock. We can consider our good fortune in Prince Edward County. Despite restrictions and limitations, we wake up every morning in a beautiful, and largely COVID-free, corner of the world.

Yet, we are fixated lately, as we are every July, on the irritations of our tourism economy. This year the frustration may be magnified by the prospect that a visitor carries the virus here. Caution is understandable. Reasonable, even, in terms of our safety.

But perhaps we might spare a thought for those cooped up in a 700 square foot condominium for months, perhaps with young children. Or teenagers. Or adult children. Are we really going to begrudge these folks a day at the beach?

Soon enough, July will pass into August, and not long thereafter, the crisp fall air will weaken the allure of our sandy shoreline. In the meantime, perhaps, might we muster the grace to share our natural beauty with a tidge more compassion?

HOW DEEP IS OUR HOLE?
It has surely been a remarkable six months at Shire Hall. A new County manager, Marcia Wallace, was thrust, within her first 100 days, into an all-consuming conflagration. Every aspect of County business has been strained, warped and contorted by the restrictions imposed by COVID-19. It will be a remarkable story one day. But for now, Wallace remains in the midst of the maelstrom.

Likely no aspect of County business has borne the brunt of this pandemic as its finances. Revenue has likely withered to a trickle as property taxes, waterworks fees, development charges and other fees are withheld or paused. In any event, late charges are not being collected (to offset the cost of lengthening receivables). Though a reasonable response to the uncertainty faced in County households, the fact remains that this money will have to be found somewhere. But where?

Meanwhile, expenses have likely continued apace—or perhaps accelerated. We don’t know how the municipality’s lenders have responded. Whether they have suspended payments— interest or principal? Is the County staying current with its suppliers? Are these folks suspending late payment penalties? Are we still buying things: trucks, computers, pens? How are we paying for them?

The questions are piling up. It seems the right moment to take stock (if not exactly the right time, as good as any in the foreseeable future). It is residential property owners in Prince Edward County who fund the bulk of the County tax business (more than 90 per cent of the municipal tax base is collected from homeowners). Residents ought to have a rough picture of the financial hole we are digging.

We are by no means through this pandemic. The pressures on Shire Hall have surely not relented. More likely, the daily grist of beaches, parks and roads are making the management challenges more of a grind. That said, a financial update need not be comprehensive or exhaustive.

A rough picture of revenue, of expenses. Capital expenditures— planned and deferred. A thin outline of the County’s financial strategy in a pandemic.

The future is unknowable—a fact that should be apparent to all of us by now. And the first six months may tell us little about the remainder of the year. But neither we—nor our council—can continue to look past the financial impact of this event. Even if there is little to be done or altered.

We should, even if for no other purpose, pull together these numbers to provide ammunition to those making the case that the province will need to supplement municipal finances.

I remind readers that municipalities are not permitted to incur a deficit. They are required to balance their budgets each year. This could be an impossible challenge in 2021. It could crush the finances of families already on the edge. It could simultaneously magnify municipal challenges and diminish our ability to address them.

It seems impertinent to ask for an accounting amid a crisis, but we can’t wait until December to measure the scale of the fiscal burden Shire Hall is accumulating.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca