The warden of Antigonish Co. says COVID-19 has delayed budget deliberations by about three weeks.
Owen McCarron says that means they don’t have a decision on their tax rates yet, but they don’t want them to change.
He says they expect to decide on rates and release a budget near the middle or end of June.
After May’s regular municipal council meeting Monday, McCarron said the first thing they’re reviewing is grants, which they expect far fewer of this time around.
“Certainly at this point, just due to the number of cancellations of fairly substantial events, we think there’s going to be less pressure on the community grant ask,” he said. “We’ll take that deep dive to understand exactly where traditional grants that we’ve offered won’t be utilized.”
McCarron said they haven’t made a decision if they’ll use provincial emergency loans to cover any potential tax revenue gaps.
He said they’re waiting to determine how collections go and the overall impact of COVID-19 on tax revenue.
