Inflation, lower than expected revenues that haven’t recovered since the pandemic and service requirements for a growing city have contributed to an unprecedented revenue gap in the budgets for the City of Saskatoon in 2024 and 25. Chief Financial Officer Clae Hack says just as residents and businesses are facing financial pressures, so is the City. If no changes are made, the City will have a deficit of $52.4 million next year and $23.2 million in 2025, but municipalities can’t have deficits, so Administration is looking to find savings.

Hack says the largest impact is inflation. As a few examples, the City has had 30 per cent increases in some of its contracts to maintain the roadway treatment cycle and Saskatoon Light & Power has had a 33 per cent increase in material prices. If the replacement cycle for the fire truck fleet were to remain on schedule, the reserve contribution would need to increase because the cost to replace an Engine has gone from $900,000 to $1.5 million.

A report on the current budget situation is being presented to the Governance and Priorities Committee on Wednesday and there will be special budget meetings throughout the summer as Administration looks for savings. For those who may be thinking, get rid of the Downtown Entertainment and Event District project to save money, Hack explains that the budgets for 2024 and 25 are not impacted because they are working on funding strategies with the goal of having no property tax implications for that project.

There is a table below which shows the impact of various property tax increases would have on the budget. However, Hack says Administration is not recommending any property tax rate increase at this point, because it’s just the beginning of the process, with budget deliberations in November.