After first denying it outright, the provincial government has reviewed the town of Sackville’s COVID-19 relief claim, and is now offering the town just under $22,000 to help cover the net impact of COVID-19 on the town for 2020.
In January, Sackville was the only town in New Brunswick to be completely denied by the province any portion of federal Safe Restart funding meant to provide COVID-19 relief. The town had submitted a claim for just under $291,000.
Anne Mooers, director of communications for Local Government, says the department had, “reviewed Sackville’s claim again,” and found they had, “overlooked a COVID-19-related salary,” that was not previously budgeted.
The federal government can’t distribute funding directly to municipalities, but must instead do so through the provinces. And so as part of its massive Safe Restart funding program announced in July last year, the federal government allotted $2-billion dollars to the provinces on a per capita basis, to be distributed to municipalities at their discretion. New Brunswick’s share of this Safe Restart for municipalities fund was just over $41 million.
Sackville town council was concerned early on with how the municipal Safe Restart fund would be distributed. Back in October 2020, the town made a motion at the annual meeting of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick, asking that the union lobby the provincial government consult with them on how to allocate federal Safe Restart funding.
Most provinces opted simply to distribute funding on a per capita basis, immediately informing their municipalities how much they would receive. In New Brunswick, Minister of Local Government Daniel Allain instead required municipalities to report the net impact of COVID-19 on their 2020 finances, and then have a resolution passed by their elected councils.
Anne Mooers says that in total, thirty-nine local governments had claimed items that were deemed not eligible, along with Sackville.
Mooers said the ineligible claims were, “generally a result of expenses not being incremental (already budgeted) or the voluntary waiving of fees, which were ineligible under this phase of the program.”
Sackville had submitted for loss of productivity when staff were on stay-at-home orders, and also for the waiving of a $20 sewage treatment fee on water bills in the spring.
Both those claims were rejected by the province.
Mooers said the province is planning another phase to distribute what remains of the $41 million in federal dollars.
“Under that phase,” says Mooers, “all local governments get funding on a per-capita basis.”
