Kamloops city staff say regardless of budget changes that are made because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be enough money set aside for a “normal” flood and fire season.

Finance director Kathy Humphrey was asked while speaking to city council.

“Barring something significantly crazy that we didn’t really think about, I think normal emergencies, normal flooding, normal fires, if we can call them normal,we are prepared.”

As per the Community Charter, local governments can not run budget deficits, unlike provincial governments or the federal government.

Humphrey says the city’s cash flow projection takes potential local emergencies into account.

“Predominantly, a lot of our cash through the summer is paid out on projects and maintenance. We’ve built it [our cash flow] knowing we would still have some money in the bank to pay for those emergencies.”

That said, Humphrey says the cash flow projection assumes that property tax and utility payments will come in between July and September.

“We also built it on the assumption… that we would have potentially a higher level of late payment or non-payment. But ultimately we didn’t build the projection that the cash would disappear completely, it would just be slow in coming in.”

A revised 2020 budget will go before city councillors on Tuesday for consideration. Any changes will have to be approved by May 15th.