Numbers presented on Stars and Thunder may not be all they appear, according to one Timmins city councillor.

In fact, Ward 5 Councillor Rick Dubeau says the deficit is “actually about $541,000″…and maybe more.

In the city council package released publicly in anticipation of Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Steve Black’s presentation outlines a total deficit of $30,000—or $1.35 per household.

But Dubeau says it doesn’t include “the time that our staff put in from October till before the festival.”

“That is a cost to the city and that is a loss in productivity. That has to be included,” he adds.

“It’s like doing a budget for the city, and not including salaries. You have to encompass everything. So we’re starting off at (a) $541,000 (deficit), it goes up from there.”

There are other things Dubeau points to in the presentation, like the near $370-thousand dollar Northern Ontario Heritage Fund grant announced Wednesday afternoon.

“That money is to be used for soil remediation and fixing the grandstands,” Dubeau tells Rogers Media.

“That does not offset the cost of Stars and Thunder, so why that was in the report, I don’t know.”

Another example is the remaining fireworks from the four cancelled shows due to weather. The fireworks are reportedly being saved for future shows in Timmins, but actual dates are not known.

“I don’t understand how the fireworks can be put in as an expense in one area, and then put in as a revenue in the other. It’s an expense, it cost us $125,000,” Dubeau says, “That is not a revenue going forward, it is a cost that’s carried over. And who knows what we’re going to do with that, but it’s a cost.”

“A cost is a cost, you can’t change that around.”

All in all, Dubeau says the deficit could be an upwards of $560,000.

He adds he doesn’t understand why the other numbers were put in there, noting it “confuses the issue.”

“People want to know what the numbers are,” Dubeau says, “The numbers are numbers, you can’t play with numbers. That is just confusing the issue and I don’t know why it was included.”

Now, looking into the math, dividing the presented number of a $30,000 deficit by $1.35 (projected cost per household), we get 22,263.

That number would be the amount of households.

We flip it and take that 22,263 and apply it to Dubeau’s number of $541,000.

With that math—541,000 divided by 22,263—we get an average cost of $24.30 per household.

One thing is for sure: Tuesday’s city council meeting will be a must watch for people wanting full details on the numbers for the eight-day festival.

And we will be there with all the details.

Filed under: Local News, stars and thunder