Cornwall’s financial overview for 2020, presented to city council Monday, was defined by COVID-19.
Numbers presented to council, which have not yet been confirmed by the annual audit, saw the city finish out the year with a $313,427 surplus. However if it hadn’t received $7.7 million in COVID-19 related funding from the Ontario and federal governments, that small surplus could have been a larger deficit.
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“This really was quite an anomaly of a year,” said chief administrative officer Maureen Adams. “I can’t tell you how much effort went in trying to keep track of all these variances and dollars, not only in just the financial services, but also in many of our city departments. Not to mention that with all the funding we received, there is a significant amount of reporting that will have to be maintained as well.
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Cornwall city council will take an early dive into the 2022 budget following its decision to schedule two meetings dedicated to reviewing how its departments operate.
The meetings have been scheduled for May 17 from 3 to 6:30 p.m. and May 18, from 3 to 8 p.m.
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The decision to do so stemmed from previous budget deliberations held earlier this year. During the process, a handful of councillors namely Couns. Eric Bergeron, Justin Towndale and Dean Hollingsworth voiced their concerns regarding what they perceived to be a lack of operating budget information.