ANTIGONISH: There is going to be at least a three week delay for the budget in Antigonish County.
Warden Owen McCarron made the statement in a teleconference briefing with reporters Wednesday morning, following the county’s regular monthly meeting which was held virtually the night before.
Council had originally hoped to pass their 2020-21 budget by May, but now it won’t likely be completed until mid-to-late June.
Usually in a position to release the budget mid-May, McCarron suggested the county is waiting to receive more information from the province regarding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Antigonish County is quite fortunate that we’ve always been in a pretty solid financial state; there are probably some municipalities that aren’t in this good of a situation,” he said. “A municipality our size, it wouldn’t be unconceivable to be off 10 per cent.”
As for the county’s bottom line, McCarron said the current situation could have a significant impact.
“It’s a little early to determine what the impacts are going to be, but we feel there are certainly going to be impacts,” he said. “We’d be naïve to think that we’re not going to feel some of the pressure that’s happening from COVID-19.”
Municipal officials don’t have a number currently as to how much the county will be impacted or how much of a shortfall might be on the way, but McCarron added there haven’t been any discussions about increasing the tax rate.
“The last thing that we’d want to look at in these times would be an increase in taxes,” he said. “We’d want to figure out other solutions to try to mitigate the pressure on ratepayers throughout the county.”