–Council in Springwater Township has taken steps to make it less stressful to pay your bills.
At a special meeting on Wednesday, councillors voted in favour of waiving penalties and interest charges if you can’t pay your property taxes or water/wastewater bills on time due to changing financial situations to do with the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Bills are still due on the normal dates though.
–Collingwood council is also waiving penalties and interest on overdue bills.
The town’s CAO told councillors today that this would cost the town around 40 thousand dollars a month in lost revenue.
Council is setting aside 2.5 million dollars from the sale of the town’s hydro company and the airport to deal with the financial implications of the COVID-19 outbreak.
–Wasaga Beach council has decided to also suspend penalties, interest and late charges on bills from April 1 to September 30, 2020. The town Treasurer says this will mean a loss to the town of 32 thousand dollars a month or a total of 180 thousand dollars in interest.
–Town of the Blue Mountains staff are proposing the option to waive penalties and interest on unpaid property tax and utility (water and sewer) bills for the three month period from April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020.
If approved by Council at the March 30, 2020 meeting, this will effectively extend the due dates for these bills until June 30, 2020.
–Clearview Township voted to waive the penalty on overdue Water and Sewer Accounts beginning with March 2020 billing cycle and lasting until the COVID – 19 Response is over.
In addition, some changes have been made to the Clearview Public Transit system.
Effective immediately Clearview Public Transit Route 1, the Stayner Route, will operate for free on Sunday hours of 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, 7 days a week and Route 2, the Creemore Route, will be discontinued until further notice.