Saskatoon City Council has a plan to get through the COVID-19 pandemic, maintain services, and hopefully not end up too far behind the 8 ball financially.

City Manager Jeff Jorgenson says their strategy is to use a combination of spending reductions while using the City’s stabilization reserves to offset a significant portion of the deficit. At this point the City is not relying on a further tax increase to deal with the deficit.

If there is a deficit not covered by relief packages from other levels of government, the City says it will at that time weigh the pros and cons of adjusting the 2021 operating and capital budgets.

One thing that isn’t changing significantly is the street sweeping program. You may notice it finishes later in the season, likely July, because the late spring melt as well as different operating processes due to COVID-19.

Budgeted construction projects will proceed as planned however most water projects with lead line replacements will be put off until later this year or until 2021.

Mayor Charlie Clark says their strategy could change as the pandemic continues to evolve. While developing the plan presented at Monday’s City Council meeting, administration took into account 3 scenarios of when restrictions will be lifted, and the administration believes a deficit could be between $10 million to $32.9 million.