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Durham Region takes a $17.5 million net covid hit

The Regional Municipality of Durham has taken a net hit of $17.5 million due to the impact of the pandemic, according to Regional Chair and CEO John Henry.

“The fiscal impact of Covid-19 as of September was approximately $40.5 million—something that we have communicated to both the provincial and federal governments,” he said. “We were very pleased with the $23 million in relief funding provided in August.”

While addressing the Clarington Board of Trade, Henry did not offer any remarks on how the shortfall will be covered.

He pointed out that Durham is nearing seven months since he declared a state of emergency for the first time in the region.

“Like many Clarington businesses, our regional team had to quickly modernize the way we do business. More than 1,300 staff quickly shifted to teleworking to keep key services and projects moving forward. We were, and are, committed to keeping Durham’s economic engine running,” he pointed out.

Henry referred to several recent initiatives such as the Durham Economic Task Force, Downtowns of Durham website, Ritual ONE and helping businesses transform digitally. He referred to success stories such as the arrival of Amazon and Durham Region Transit improvements.

“We have been working on even more initiatives to continue getting Durham back to business,” he said.

New Economy

Henry said the new Durham Region Strategic Plan envisions a new economy that features autonomous and electric vehicles, nuclear energy, AI and personalized medicine.

It also underlines the region’s commitment to land-use planning—creating more greenspace and supporting our rural communities.

Priorities such as the importance of environmental sustainability and agriculture; social housing; and supporting our local businesses to foster continued economic success for our great region, have not changed.

Regional Recovery Framework

Henry said the Regional Recovery Framework is centered on four pillars: Social, Built, Economic and Municipal.

SOCIAL pillar is all about taking care of our people, including priorities such as the health and safety of residents during Covid-19, housing and taking care of our vulnerable residents.

  • One such example of this priority in action is the installation of WiFi in homeless shelters thanks to a donation from Covid-19 Community Response Fund for Vulnerable Populations.
  • Other priorities include the safe operation of our child care centres, a primary care outreach program for Covid-19 testing and managing Covid-19 outbreaks.

BUILT ENVIRONMENT pillar, focuses on objectives for transformative projects and environmental sustainability.

  • This includes changing how we build and design facilities, housing and services.
  • We are also looking for ways to build back better, with a focus on environmental impact in everything we do.
  • This also includes the recovery of Durham Region Transit ridership, including in the north.

MUNICIPAL pillar considers the major financial and operational hit local governments have taken and our plan to get our own house back in order.

  • The fiscal impact of Covid-19 as of September was approximately $40.5 million—something that we have communicated to both the provincial and federal governments. We were very pleased with the $23 million in relief funding provided in August.
  • Regional staff have demonstrated some amazing work, resiliency and adaptability to change during the pandemic.
  • As an organization, we have been applying lessons learned from the pandemic to modernize our services—such as the further development of myDurham 311—a service for Durham to modernize how we do business.
  • myDurham 311 aims to modernize the customer experience by consolidating our call centres into one contact centre experience, that includes more online functionality and ensures a faster and more efficient experience.
  • myDurham311 is just another example of our organization striving for innovation and modernization in all of our practices.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY pillar spells out specific actions the region is taking to ensure our local economy not only recovers, but comes out of this stronger than ever.

  • Durham Economic Task Force is providing direct one-on-one support to help businesses find the resources they need.
  • We are supporting local businesses in resuming operations to get our economic engine back up and running.
  • We are prioritizing the improvement of vital business infrastructure, such as broadband internet, especially for rural communities—a priority for Clarington.
  • We are constantly looking at opportunities for partnerships, and continued investment and funding from partners such as the provincial and federal governments.
  • We are promoting current and new post-secondary programming to “upskill” and retrain the current workforce to ensure a more adaptable and resilient economy.
  • We continue to promote Durham Region’s position as the Clean Energy Capital of Canada with the goal of attracting more jobs in the energy sector.
  • We are also actively highlighting Durham Region’s strong history of innovation to increase awareness of Durham as a good place to do business and attract more jobs.

Long-lasting economic vitality

The region is also looking for ways to ensure our long-lasting economic vitality, with projects such as the Natural Resources Canada’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Action Plan. As we are Canada’s premier nuclear host jurisdiction, the federal government sees our role in SMRs—smaller and more cost-effective nuclear reactors—as key to helping Canada shift to a low carbon economy and achieve GHG emissions targets, while supporting job creation in an emerging industrial subsector. From a regional perspective, SMRs could support the growth of jobs and nuclear expertise in Durham as well as meet Ontario’s electricity needs with a low carbon option to support Canada’s climate change goals.

GO Lakeshore East Extension

And finally, we worked with Clarington, Whitby, and Oshawa, to make GO Lakeshore East Extension a reality, after many years of planning.

It’s been more than 30 years since Durham Region first heard about a train extension into Clarington. And almost a decade since an approved environmental assessment confirmed a preferred route north of Highway 401.

These stations will drive economic revitalization in several key areas, while supporting active transportation within our communities. This investment is expected to have a positive economic impact on our communities for the next 50 years.

The GO East project will provide direct access to our local post-secondary campuses. It will also connect to and help strengthen the existing transit hub in downtown Oshawa.

In Clarington, the new stations offer opportunities for transit-oriented development.

It’s the type of development we know people are looking for: walkable, compact, pedestrian-oriented places where people can work and find entertainment.

Innovative community

With everything I’ve mentioned here today, it’s clear that Durham Region has built a well-deserved reputation as an innovative community. We are known for our ability to adapt and solve big problems. We will continue to showcase these strengths, long after this situation is over, while we continue to grow to be the greatest region in Canada, said Henry.

“I’d like to close by saying thank you. I want everyone here to know that the region understands the importance of the work you do in supporting and fueling our economy.

While the world looks wildly different than it did last spring, our hard work remains unchanged. Thank you for all that you do…,” he added.

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