KITCHENER -- Waterloo Region’s municipalities are joining a nationwide call for emergency funding from the federal government to support them through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is asking for $10 billion in funding.

“The reality is that Canada’s cities and communities are on the brink of financial crisis,” says Kitchener mayor Berry Vrbanovic. “We’ve been able to manage this through the first month, but when you look at the bleeding that’s happening in municipalities of all sizes, it’s not sustainable.”

Kitchener has seen a net budget shortfall of about $2 million during the first month of the pandemic, due to losses in revenue from deferred property taxes, utility charges, and user fees.

Vrbanovic says the Region of Waterloo’s biggest loss comes from transit revenue, which is down $3.5 million per month.

He says the federal government was right to focus on money for Canadians and businesses first, but now it needs to bring attention to municipal relationships.

The FCM proposal is split into two pieces.

The first part calls for $7.6 billion to be shared with all municipalities on a per capita basis.

Here’s how it would break down for local municipalities (numbers are approximate):

  • Region of Waterloo - $56 million
  • City of Kitchener - $24.5 million
  • City of Cambridge - $13.5 million
  • City of Waterloo - $11 million
  • Township of Woolwich - $2.5 million
  • Township of Wilmot - $2 million
  • Township of Wellesley - $1 million
  • Township of North Dumfries - $1 million

The second half of the proposal would see $2.4 billion dollars shared among municipalities that run and pay for transit systems, and would be divvied up based on ridership numbers.

The Region of Waterloo represents about 1 percent of all transit trips in the country, and would get another $24 million, for a total of $80 million.

Vrbanovic says the idea is that if all the funding is not needed to keep the books balanced, the rest would be put toward infrastructure stimulus projects once the pandemic is over.

“This is something that is going to be prolonged and potentially is going to see another phase come later in the year,” says Vrbanovic. “So we see this as an initial investment that’s going to be necessary in order to support municipalities.”