Saskatoon city council passes 2022/2023 budget
Residents will see property taxes increase by 3.86 per cent in 2022 and 3.53 percent in 2023.
It means the average Saskatoon homeowner will pay around $74 more in 2022 and $70 more the following year.
The increases are higher than those originally suggested by city administration in its proposed budget, 3.51 per cent in 2022 and 3.14 per cent in 2023.
"You know we make our sausage in public at the city level, this is a very deliberate process and a very transparent process and it shows the challenge of meeting all the demands of the city," Mayor Charlie Clark said as the meeting came to a close.
Over the course of three days of budget deliberations, presenters made pitches for funding. One proposal was to include snow grading on bike lanes. The current practice is not to grade bike lanes unless they're included on a "priority" street.
Ward 2 Coun. Hillary Gough was in favour of the idea.
“By not cleaning in the winter, we disconnect that network. That makes it often physically impossible to navigate the streets on a bike,” she said.
Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill was against the proposal.
“Now is not the time to be adding new projects that are not requested by the citizens of Saskatoon,” Hill said.
Funding for snow grading on bike lanes was defeated, with most councillors and the mayor not supporting the idea.
However, council did approve multiple investments including a new transit service to north Kensington and Aspen Ridge, graffiti management, recreation and sports improvements as well as reconciliation, equity, diversity and inclusion programs.
The Saskatoon Police Service’s (SPS) operating budget has also been approved for the next two years, which will see it receive $119.7 million next year and $124.6 million in 2023. The budget includes resources to address the increase in calls for service with the addition of eight new patrol constables In 2022 and four the year after.
Clark said the approved tax rate is still one of the lowest in the last decade despite the economic challenges caused by COVID-19.
“I’m realizing that we have to do everything we can to keep the tax rate low, but if we don’t pay attention to some of the key issues we’re facing as a city, we won’t be competitive and we won’t be a city that has a good quality of life where everybody has the chance to succeed,” he told CTV News.
Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer, along with Hill and Ward 9 Coun. Bev Dubois voted against the budget as a whole.
Donauer said there could’ve been ways to pinch pennies like limiting the number of new hires.
“If we’re not going to cut, I think we could have at least held the line and operated the city next year with the same amount of resources that we had last year. I realize that there are some inflationary pressures and we’ve got some contract issues to deal with with our employees, but I think we could have honoured those and held the line on the rest.”
Meanwhile, Ward 7 Coun. Mairin Loewen said there is a gap in revenue and the services the city offers that needs to be made up.
“We spent a lot of time trying to make up gaps for the infrastructure deficit that the city has had for many years. We are making progress on roadways and so forth. What our administration was telling us yesterday was that to reduce the budget further, would cause us to lose ground and when we defer maintenance and defer investments in programs and services in the city, it almost always means bigger expenses down the road,” she said.
In addition to the property tax increase, utility fees for waster and wastewater usage will increase by 2.5 per cent in 2022 and 3.4 per cent in 2023.
Indoor leisure centre admission rates will also go up by two per cent in both 2022 and 2023.
Next year, council will have the chance to make changes to the 2023 budget if needed.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.