The City of Kamloops is starting discussions today on re-working this year’s budget, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance director Kathy Humphrey syas if the closures last until June 30, the city’s overall loss in revenue would be about $6.52 million, and if the closures last until Sep. 30 it would be about $11.63 million.

The city would, however, expect to save some money on expenses, meaning the net losses would be an estimated $3.7 million by June 30 or $6.2 million by Sep. 30 at the current pace.

“If you look at those revenue numbers, we’ve lost revenues in parking and bylaws and all the recreation revenues and a whole bunch of things. So it’s not just the closure of the facilities but it’s all the non-tax revenues that we generally collect. Transit is another one, we’re not collecting any fares there either.”

Humphrey tells NL News some capital projects could be shelved until next year or future years, and some may inevitably have to be. “Due to unavailability of staff, supplies, or contractors, some of these projects can no longer be completed, even if the city wanted to continue with them.”

And the city could dip into reserve funds as well.

“The City has, as an example, about $14 million dollars just in our general reserve. And then there’s a bunch of other reserves for more specific purposes that could be repurposed in emergencies such as this if need be. So just the general reserve alone is about $14 million dollars and that’s the type of reserve we’ve been referring to as a rainy-day reserve, or to do things that are unexpected or unplanned.”

Before the pandemic, the tax increase for this fiscal year was expected to be 2.97 per cent, which would mean a property tax increase on the of $65 for the average homeowner.

Humphrey says council has until May 15 to decide on what changes to make to the budget.