

WINDSOR — Officials with the city of Windsor are predicting a major multi-million dollar hit to the city budget due to COVID-19.

State of emergencies were declared by Windsor and Ontario in March closing all non-essential services.

Speaking on AM800's the Morning Drive, Mayor Drew Dilkens says since then, the city has tried to reduce its expenses as much as possible, but some expenses can't be avoided such as maintaining certain facilities like the downtown Aquatic Centre.

Add to that, Mayor Dilkens says the revenue stream from Caesars Windsor, Enwin and the dividend from the Windsor Airport have plummeted.

"You can think of the revenue streams that we budget for, that council passed and approved our budget back in January, that deal with revenue we receive from the casino to the tune of millions of dollars," he says. "All that has dried up because the place is closed. You think of the revenue we get from the airport—about a million dollar dividend a year."

He warns the combination of a drop in revenue and current expenses, will be painful for taxpayers in the future.

"It will have a budget hit and I would anticipate that depending on how long this goes on, it could cost the municipalty between $6 and 10-million to start," he says.

To make matters worse, Mayor Dilkens says the pandemic is affecting the entire country so Ottawa can't focus on helping one area of the country, at the expense of another area.