At a marathon meeting on Tuesday, Saskatoon’s city council made a significant drop in a huge funding gap.
The city was facing a $ 50.9 million funding gap for 2024 and a $ 23.2 million gap in 2025. So far, those gaps have been reduced by $ 21.6 million and $ 1.59 million.
At Tuesday’s special meeting of the city’s governance and priorities committee, Saskatoon Chief Financial Officer Clae Hack explained what these reductions mean for taxpayers.
“Equating it to property taxes, if no further mitigation had been granted, it would have been (an increase of) 9.96 per cent in 2024 and 6.17 per cent in 2025,” Hack said.
That’s up from initial estimates of a property tax increase of 18.56 percent in 2024 and a 6.95 percent increase in 2025.
At the start of the meeting, Mayor Charlie Clark reiterated that Saskatoon was one of six cities in Canada that maintained its AAA credit rating and noted that Saskatoon was not the only city facing budget challenges.
“If you just follow the news about Toronto, they have a billion-dollar funding shortfall there,” he said.
Clark thanked city administration staff for creating a series of seven reports with opportunities to cut funding gaps.
Keith Moen, executive director of the North Saskatoon Business Association, was one of two speakers who addressed the council during the meeting, presenting his group’s list of seven recommendations, which he said included contributions from experts in Accounting, Law, Human Resources and business leadership. This list included the ban on large capital projects and the dismissal of up to 400 people from the municipality.
Moen had some pointed words for the council, telling the elected representatives that they had the opportunity now to do what they should have done all along: listening to experts.
“You have made this a topic of conversation in unique places. Not only in the water cooler, but among parents at Children’s birthday parties, for example, and in the fires around Saskatcheanair. All by people who normally do not give a boost to civic or political issues,” he said.
“In other words, you’ve entered it big time, and everyone is watching.”
Don Atchison, who was mayor of Saskatoon from 2003 to 2016 and ran for office unsuccessfully in 2020, also made a last-minute presentation at the meeting, outlining areas he said should be priorities for funding as the council seeks savings. They included affordable housing, Protective Services, Roads and transportation.
He also suggested that some large capital projects be paused to help address funding gaps.
The council voted to accept most of the recommendations in the administration’s report, cutting more than $ 20 million in costs over the next two years.
A motion asking Saskatoon’s Police Service to present its budget before the end of November when budget discussions usually take place was also unanimously approved.
Other recommendations adopted by the council included a possible increase in parking fees from $ 2 to $ 2.50 per hour and a 15-cent fee for the parking app that would be charged each time someone with the app adds time to its meter.
Despite being adopted, none of the approved recommendations is set in stone. The council will have to debate and approve the measures during its budget discussions at the end of November.
Five reports are still to be debated during separate meetings. These include potential savings in community support, environmental health, Land Development, Arts and culture, and taxation.
The next meeting will take place in August. 15, with an opportunity to continue the next day.
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