Just three months into the current fiscal year, staff now peg this year's COVID-19-related costs at $254 million. The revised projections represent a major jump from the $153-million pandemic-related deficit staff calculated last fall while drafting the budget. The city has already received enough to wipe out the $238 million in pandemic costs incurred in 2020. Transit the biggest burdenThe extra pandemic pressure is mainly due to higher-than-expected losses incurred by OC Transpo. As a result, transit alone is projected to face pandemic losses of up to $153 million in 2021, accounting for more than half of the city's COVID-19 costs this year.

Source: CBC News April 06, 2021 18:45 UTC