The City of Ottawa is preparing to limit its spending and perhaps shrink its operations to only essential services as the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak threatens its finances, workforce and ability to rally resources to respond to the pandemic.
The city’s carefully-planned revenues are “already declining at a rapid pace”, according to the city manager, who said Wednesday that the spread of COVID-19 has thrown senior city staff into unchartered waters. “This is the first time I can remember, in the 25 years I’ve been involved in emergencies, that it’s very difficult to project what the circumstances are going to be to be able to mitigate and what steps we have to take to be able to recover,” Steve Kanellakos said. “It’s changing