The City of Saskatoon is looking to crack down on nuisance calls for emergency services. City Council will discuss a report today (mon) that has three options on the table.

One option is to increase staffing to ensure property maintenance complaints are addressed in a timely manner.

City administration is recommending that council direct them to investigate further and report back on the financial implications of implementing the option of increasing staff to facilitate pro-active property maintenance inspections.

Currently the City’s staffing levels require complaints to be prioritized based on potential life safety risk and then followed by the order of which the complaint was received.

An additional 1 and half full time staff positions have been approved for two years to help address the current backlog of maintenance complaints, although hiring more staff beyond that point could mean having a follow-up inspection program on problematic properties which will ensure compliance over the long-term.

There are approximately 37 thousand rental units in the city. Council will review the report this afternoon.