Barrie is temporarily laying off 55 workers effective today (April 17th).
The new layoffs include 25 temporary positions, 5 permanent part-time and 25 permanent full-time positions.
The City says it’s due to the extended cancellation of several non-essential City services and the resulting financial impact.
The City has redeployed 17 staff from areas not deemed essential right now to essential functions. As well, the City and Union has agreed to require reduced work weeks by 1 day per week for employees in most areas of the corporation.
These steps have prevented a significant number of other layoffs.
Michael Prowse, Barrie’s CAO, says these are tough decisions made during unprecedented times.
“I have a great amount of respect for our staff and the jobs they do each day,” he says. “Unfortunately, not unlike other organizations, we’ve had to drastically change the way we operate in order to help stop the spread of COVID-19.”
The City has two main revenue sources – property taxes and user fees for services including recreation, transit and parking.
The City’s budget, including employee salaries, is based in part on these fees.
Community centres have been closed since March 13th and will not open until at least June 30th.
Barrie has been offering free transit since March 20th and has not been enforcing paid parking.
Due to this, the City says it’s lost roughly $1.7 million in revenue this past month and it projects a reduction in cash flow of $65 million by year-end.
Prowse says the City is in a very difficult financial situation without the ability for Federal and Provincial financial programs and the requirement for municipalities to balance our books each fiscal year.
“We owe it to taxpayers to do what we can to minimize the long-term impact of this crisis,” he adds. “I would like to thank the CUPE executive for their work and acknowledgement of the difficult situation we are facing.”
The City will continue to maintain all essential services citizens rely on every day.
For the latest updates to City services, click here
COVID-19 Update for April 17th – City services, recovery timing, and how we're all getting through this together. pic.twitter.com/isdsdCUAgD
— Jeff Lehman (@jedi_lehman) April 17, 2020
The City of Barrie has made the difficult decision to temporarily layoff 55 more employees due to extended closures/cancellations: https://t.co/bASGCTtDGg
— The City of Barrie (@cityofbarrie) April 17, 2020