Audited financial results confirm City was able to manage early fiscal challenges of the pandemic with assistance from federal Safe Restart Agreement funds
Winnipeg, MB – The City of Winnipeg has released its audited consolidated financial statements for 2020, as audited by the City’s external auditor KPMG. The report will be presented at Audit Committee on May 18, 2021.
The audited consolidated financial statements confirm that following challenges related to COVID-19 and the refund of impact fees, the City was left with a shortfall before capital related revenues of $52 million out of an annual operating budget of roughly $1.7 billion. This shortfall would have been much larger if not for the financial support of federal Safe Restart Agreement funds and steps taken by the City through the COVID-19 Crisis Cash Flow Management Plan. The City received $74.5 million in federal Safe Restart Agreement funding in 2020, comprised of $42.2 million allocated for municipal purposes and $32.3 million for Transit.
As part of the COVID-19 Crisis Cash Flow Management Plan, the City was able to maintain capital investments with $409 million in Council approved spending on capital assets. The plan also helped the City keep net financial liabilities under control, increasing by only $9 million last year while maintaining a significant level of capital spending.
“The release of the City’s consolidated financial statements confirms the importance of the fiscal planning and federal assistance received in response to COVID-19 last year,” said Councillor Scott Gillingham, Chair of the Standing Policy Committee on Finance. “The challenge continues in 2021, but federal funding and steps taken through the COVID-19 Crisis Cash Flow Management Plan have helped to mitigate the impact on our local economy and allowed the City to reset the Fiscal Stabilization Reserve fund for this current year.”
The City’s audited consolidated financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2020 is publicly available through the Decision Making Information System (DMIS).