One of the topics that had the most discussion at day 2 of the City of Saskatoon budget deliberations was environmental health. In the end, it was decided the city’s green cart program would see a fee increase of $10 a year from $55 to $65 at the earlybird price, which ends April 31st each year. Administration had recommended a $5 increase but Councillor Bev Dubois made a motion to raise it to help save on taxes for residents.
The optional green cart program will be replaced by the curbside recycling program, which will launch in 2023. Dubois made a motion to delay that until 2026 to once again save residents some taxes.
Councillor Sarina Gersher commented that the decision for 2023 had already been made in March and there had been much discussion back and forth so she wasn’t sure why it was coming up again. Councillor Loewen said it’s not in the best interests of the community to prolong the problem. General Manager of Utilities and Environment Angela Gardiner commented that depending on the number of subscriptions, delaying the project would cost about $500-thousand a year. Council voted in favour of sticking with a launch date for the curbside recycling program in 2023.
Monthly recycling fees for single family homes are increasing from $5.65 to $7.38 a month and for multi-unit buildings, the increase is from $3.11 per month to $3.71.
Last year’s budget deliberations for the City of Saskatoon took 16 hours. That was surpassed on Tuesday. There were over 8 hours of discussion on Monday and another 8 on Tuesday, with a third day of budget discussion ahead. At the beginning of the day on Tuesday, Finance Manager Kerry Tarasoff updated that the projected tax increase had been lowered a bit. The starting point for day 2 of discussions was a 3.19 per cent increase in 2020 and 3.41 per cent in 2021. In October, administration had projected a 3.23 per cent increase next year and 3.54 per cent in 2021. Those numbers could change in Day 3.

One of the questions posed during Saskatoon budget deliberations on transportation on Tuesday was whether the the red light cameras being down affects the revenue. Director of Transportation, Jay Magus responded that the cameras will be back up in January, but the fact that they have been down won’t be a problem.
He explains that revenue from the cameras go into the traffic safety reserve and they are very conservative in their estimates.
In the past, that money has helped for mid-year budget items.
Magus says he anticipates this budget will be fine. He says it remains to be seen if they would be able to bring forward a mid-year adjustment with some extra money.
The transportation budget was approved unanimously by Council.