Photo: Glacier Media

Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley anticipates the city will have to shed more than 1,000 staff in order to reconcile an increasingly dire gap between revenues and expenditures.

Rumours circulating among staff suggest the number could be as high as 1,500, though Hurley would not confirm that and said no decision has been finalized. He did, however, say the layoffs would likely hit the parks and recreation department, where many facilities have closed, the hardest.

Even at 1,000 employees, the layoffs represent a staggering portion of the city’s payroll. According to the 2018 statement of financial information, published last summer, the city employed just shy of 4,000 people, including full-time and part-time staff.

All this comes as the city is losing millions of dollars each month, according to Hurley.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart in Vancouver and Hurley’s peers across Canada have also said they are looking at serious financial woes, including the potential for bankruptcy.

In a statement over the weekend, Stewart published figures from a Research Co. poll that found more than half of homeowners anticipate not paying their full property tax bill. Up to a quarter could default on their bills entirely, a figure Stewart said could devastate the city’s finances and lead to a serious risk of insolvency.

But while Hurley said the Research Co. figures presented by Stewart likely translate evenly over to Burnaby, he also said he isn’t as concerned “at this stage” about the City of Burnaby risking bankruptcy.

“Not unless this goes on for a long, long time. I think we’re OK,” he said. “Nine months would be a long, long time, so if it went to the end of the year. Then we would start taking some serious hits.”

Beyond residential property taxes, Hurley said a major concern is the city’s small businesses, many of which have had to close their doors during the pandemic. The big question is how many will remain closed permanently.

“I think a lot of small businesses won’t be able to recover,” Hurley said.