COVID-19 will provide a real challenge to those who need to crunch the numbers when it comes to devising a city budget for 2021.

The city says as it stands right now, we could be facing a deficit of at least six million dollars and that number could get as high as eight and a half million meaning some decisions will need to be made.

Mayor Michael Fougere says the city will find a way to ease the burden on taxpayers.

“We just found a twenty million dollar gap because we basically had to shut down the economy and we found a way to bridge that gap.” Fougere said. “We will do that again in a way that is compassionate and understanding. People will not get shortchanged by services.”

Fougere, who says he is not in favour of a major property tax increase, says Regina is not the only Canadian city facing this problem and that they will watch what others are doing when it comes to how they approach things.

He adds some of the stress the city faces could be alleviated if they could get some financial support from the provincial and federal governments and that discussions on that continue.