The city is expected to write off more than $50,000 it’s owed in relation to the Maritime Heritage Centre.
Council has agreed to forgive the debt as part of a new agreement it has entered into with the Maritime Heritage Society, which operates the centre. Dennis Brodie, the city’s finance operations supervisor, said the agreement was inked on April 1 and is good for five years. Included in the negotiations was an understanding, endorsed by council, that certain items under the former agreement, which resulted in receivables on the city’s books, would be forgiven,” Brodie wrote in a report to council.
The write offs are: a $40,000 agreement signing fee related to the former agreement; as well as 10 per cent of the annual space lease and rental fees collected by the society in 2011 ($7,623.65), 2012 ($7,970), and 2013 ($6,153.50); and $825.23 in water and sewer charges for the building in 2011 and 2012.
Council was expected to authorize those write offs at Tuesday’s council meeting, after the Mirror went to press.
Brodie said not collecting the amounts formerly owed will not affect the city’s budget.
“As part of the year-end process, an allowance for bad debts is made against the total amount of receivables on the books,” Brodie said. “As such, all of the write-offs being proposed have been fully accounted for and there is no financial impact in 2014 as a result of these proposed write offs.”
Meanwhile, the city has also provided the Maritime Heritage Society with a one-time $30,000 funding boost and has established a repair and maintenance account for the Maritime Heritage Centre, both of which are funded through council’s contingency account.
Council made the decision to provide the funding during an in-camera council meeting on Dec. 3 of last year.