After learning of the City of Saskatoon’s more than $70 million budget shortfall for the next two years, the North Saskatoon Business Association generated seven recommendations to potentially bridge the funding gap.

The recommendations encourage the City to reduce staffing levels in specific departments, implement a more stringent efficiency and productivity agenda, anticipate reduced revenues due to inflation and changes in spending patterns, pause programs that higher levels of government should fund, postpone capital and operational expenses for green initiatives, pause all major capital projects, and liquidate greenhouses on 33rd Street and Avenue P.

NSBA Executive Director Keith Moen says the first recommendation, staffing cuts, would benefit the deficit the most. He suggested they conduct a human resources audit to reduce the staff by 10 per cent, or 400 people.

Moen says it’s a simple problem to fix. He says if a company’s HR costs are eating up nearly 60 per cent of expenses, that should be the area that is looked at most stringently.

There will be funding gaps of $50.9 million and $21.7 million for 2024 and 2025 respectively. Moen will present the recommendations to City Council at the Special Budget Meeting on Tuesday.