After being turned down for its original request of just under $291,000 in federal Safe Restart funding, the town of Sackville will end up with just over $311,000 from the federal fund after all.

Town treasurer Michael Beal said that a plan for the money will be brought forward to town council for approval. On Monday night, during a question period at town council’s regular meeting, Beal said, “how and where the fund is allocated is yet to be determined.” For now it will go in to the town’s general revenue, and some may end up as revenue for the water utility, he said.

“We have additional COVID related expenses,” said Beal, “and it’s still happening. So that some of that will go to offset those additional costs.”

Federal Safe Restart funding for municipalities was announced in the summer, and while many provinces chose to distribute the funding on a per capita basis to local governments, New Brunswick broke ranks and chose to have municipalities account for their 2020 COVID-related losses, and apply to the province to receive the federal money.

Sackville’s application to recover just under $291,000 in COVID-related costs from 2020 was at first completely rejected by the province, but a small amount, about $21,000, was later approved.

But with $28 million left in the fund at the end of January, the province decided to distribute the remainder on a per capita basis. That means that Sackville will receive another roughly $290,000, for a total of $311,000.

Had the full $41 million fund been distributed strictly on a per capita basis, the town of Sackville would have received about $424,000.

About $1.9 million of the fund was used to support public transit in the province, after the Higgs government failed to apply for the separate public transit fund which is part of the same federal Safe Restart program. Another $11 million was distributed via the province’s COVID expense claim process, and the remaining $28 million through a per capita breakdown.

Here’s how other cities, towns and villages in the southeast made out with the province’s distribution of Safe Restart funding:

Southeast region allotments for New Brunswick's $41 million in federal Safe Restart funding for municipalities. Data: Government of New Brunswick; Table: Erica Butler