Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said the 2020-21 Annual Report highlighted Council’s support for Darwin’s economy in a period of uncertainty caused by the COVID pandemic.
Mr Vatskalis said initiatives including myDarwin vouchers, the Green Army, Greening Darwin, and Building Better Suburbs had helped Darwin’s economy weather the fall-out from the COVID pandemic.
“We pumped $4.2 million into the local economy with our myDarwin vouchers and employed 100 people experiencing hardship in our Green Army putting them to work on beautification projects around the city.
“Add to this the 8,200 trees we planted last financial year and the targeted spending contained in our $5 million Better Suburbs Projects and I can proudly say Council did a lot of heavy economic lifting at a time that Darwin really needed it,” Mr Vatskalis said.
Additionally, City of Darwin injected almost $40 million into capital expenditure in the 20-21 Financial Year, which saw spending on a range of assets including parks and reserves, public lighting, waste management infrastructure and stormwater drainage.
Council’s expenses for the year were almost $128 million, including a $35.5 million wages bill.
“At City of Darwin we are committed to buying local. So projects like our $2.5 million Lakeside Drive upgrade and the $8.5 million for new infrastructure at Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility are just two examples of ways we helped local contractors find work when times were tough.
“This was all spending which boosted the local economy when it was dealing with the headwinds of COVID.
“And what’s more we achieved all of this while delivering a zero per cent rate increase with no increase on our fees and charges,” Mr Vatskalis said.