Saskatoon’s City Council didn’t think like business owners while deliberating the budget. That, from the Executive Director of the North Saskatoon Business Association, which urged Councilors prior to the beginning of deliberations on Monday, to do so.

Keith Moen says, “Rather than looking at the expenditures side of the equation for their solution, they simply said ‘let’s charge even more.’ As a result, everyone now has rising taxes, rising utility rates, rising user fees and, oh, by the way, you now have to pay extra for garbage collection too because it’s now a separate utility.”

Keith Moen also pointed to a property tax that is higher than originally proposed. Moen explains that when COVID-19 first hit, the NSBA wrote a letter to Council suggesting the City cut staff, and then before the budget, the request was for a hiring freeze, but to no avail. He says, “I’d accuse them of being completely out of touch with the people they’re representing but at least they shot down snow clearing for bike paths.”

Moen believes the NSBA needs to be more vocal about its members’ concerns, which include a fragile economy, particularly for small business, which is being negatively impacted by labour supply, supply chain issues, increased debt loads, the elimination of government support programs, and inflationary pressures.

The final result of the budget was a property tax increase of 3.86 per cent next year and 3.53 per cent in 2023.