Administrative savings and reallocating funds from reserves along with reducing contributions to funds is how the City of Saskatoon is planning on saving money.

During budget deliberations in November, City Council elected to move forward with cutting back $7 million dollars on expenditures.

On Monday, the Governance and Priorities Committee adopted recommendations from City staff on how to save money.

This includes reducing training opportunities for staff and holding out on vacancies left by full-time employees where services to the public are not affected. With deferring new hires and training sessions for staff, along with other administrative measures, the City expects $2.25 million can be saved.

To hit another $4.2 million dollars in savings, the City says taking a higher share of revenue from the water utility and or reducing contributions to a special events fund along with redirecting funds left over from capital projects that would otherwise end up in reserve funds.

Executive Director of the Riversdale BID, Randy Pshebylo  thanked the City for taking a proactive approach to save some money given the last two years have been hard on businesses due to COVID. He says hundreds of businesses have been saddled with extraordinary property tax increases.

While the question of whether or not gas prices will affect the City’s expenses, Clae Hack, the City’s Chief Financial Officer says the City will feel the impacts of higher fuel costs, adding administration will update council later this year.

City staff also say a recently awarded contract for office supplies within City operations is expected to provide significant savings over time.

The matter will now go before City Council for final approval next week.