Grappling with snow-clearing costs that pushed its budget well into the red, the City of Saint John has announced it is applying for disaster relief funding from the province.
This year’s harsh winter pummeled the port city with record breaking snowfalls that shattered its clean-up budget.
Coun. Bill Farren said the city is projecting a cost overrun on the snow-clearing budget of at least $3.5 million.
“The emergency that we put in place for the south end, which constitutes seven days of a lot of overtime and outside workers coming in and doing contract work with the city … it was working 24-7, so it certainly put us over-budget by quite a bit,” Farren said.
Saint John declared a state of emergency for the south-central peninsula on Feb. 2 — the first such order since 1986.
The city’s application for disaster relief funding was announced at Monday’s city council meeting.
The city isn’t saying how much it’s asking for, but Saint John MLAs Ed Doherty and Rick Doucet met with council on Monday to hear its proposal.
“There’s no commitment, but at the same time we’re going to take it forward for them,” Doucet said.
Though it was the only one to declare a state of emergency, Saint John wasn’t the only New Brunswick city to be hit hard this winter.
The City of Moncton is running a $2.6-million deficit for the year so far, and Fredericton is still crunching its numbers.
Farren said the province’s decision could open the door for other municipalities to apply.
“I would be very surprised if they don’t have a request into the province as well, so if they gave it to one they should give it to others,” he said.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ashley Blackford
