Staff Report #8 – Financial Update – Conventional Transit Services – Operating Budget – October 31, 2020

Staff Report #8

November 25, 2020

To All Commissioners

Re: Financial Update – Conventional Transit Services – Operating Budget – October 31, 2020

Recommendation

That the report be NOTED and FILED.

Background

Set out in the table below is the Statement of Operations for Conventional Transit Services for the ten-month period ending October 31, 2020 including actual to budget performance for the period. The table has been modified to include a breakout of the resulting variances based on either general operating differences (i.e. ongoing operations) and those attributed to the COVID-19 outbreak.

London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Conventional Transit Services Ten Months Ending October 31, 2020 (000’s omitted)

As indicated, the Conventional transit service to date has a net unfavourable actual to budget performance of $8,557,500 representing approximately 13.8% of the total budget to-date of $62.2 million. Of this unfavourable variance, $10,371,700 is attributable to the impacts of COVID-19 and is offset partially by a favourable general operating variance of $1,814,100.

An explanation of the two variances is set out below:

COVID-19

The impacts attributed to COVID-19 in the table above are based on the assumptions of administration that have been applied from the onset of the pandemic. The COVID-19 impact noted above includes results for the period of April to September that were reported to the Ministry of Transportation as eligible expenditures under the guidelines for the Safe Restart Funding program. The submitted report also included an estimate of funding requirements for October through March 2021. Actual COVID-19 impacts for this period will be tracked and reported when the program’s funding is to be finalized

With respect to the variances that have been attributed to COVID-19 at this time, the following explanations are provided:

• unfavourable transportation revenue of $12,781,200 due to the loss of revenue associated with the rear door boarding and elimination of fare collection from March 20, 2020 to August 18, 2020 along with the subsequent reduction in paid ridership;
• net favourable personnel costs of $1,964,300 due to reduced service hours relating to COVID-19 related absences slightly offset by increased costs relating to enhanced nightly bus cleaning;
• favourable fuel costs of $402,000 due to reduced kilometers; and
• net unfavourable facility and other material costs due to reduced expenditures for fare processing fees offset by additional costs for disinfectants, hand sanitizers, masks and other supplies.

General Operating

• unfavourable transportation revenue of $209,800 due to lower than budgeted ridership prior to the onset of COVID-19;
• unfavourable provincial gas tax (PGT) funding compared to budget as the allocation has been reduced to keep the PGT allocation to operations consistent with the budgeted 9.8% investment share;
• favourable personnel costs of $808,400 due to the timing of vacancies and other non-COVID-19 related absences;
• favourable fuel costs of $1,586,000 due mainly to a favourable price variance;
• favourable facility costs of $313,600 mainly due to lower consumption of natural gas during the unseasonably warmer heating season; and
• unfavourable insurance costs of $366,400 due to increase in premiums imposed on the 2020-2021 insurance program renewal.

Ridership

The table below sets out actual to budget ridership performance as well as comparison to the same period in the previous year, noting that ridership numbers between March 20, 2020 and August 18, 2020 are based on boardings as collected by the onboard passenger counters.

Ridership Performance – Actual vs. Budget

Administration will continue to monitor the operating budget performance, with the focus on COVID-19 as well as general operating impacts on a monthly basis.

Recommended by: Mike Gregor, Director of Finance

Concurred in by: Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager