City of Saskatoon waits to see effect of carbon tax

As the federal carbon tax takes effect across Saskatchewan, the City of Saskatoon is waiting for more information on how the tax might affect its budget.

City of Saskatoon chief financial officer Kerry Tarasoff said it was difficult to gauge whether higher fuel, heating and power prices would end up taking a bite out of city coffers.

“We’re still looking at that. If we can get some clarity on the rebate program, then we can determine if there really is a budget impact,” he said.

Tarasoff said the city was working with an estimate that the tax would cost somewhere between $650,000 to $800,000 for the year, before any rebates are applied.

He said that figure was an estimate of the extra costs for things like fuel for the city’s fleet of vehicles and heating costs for its buildings.

“We don’t know what the indirect impacts will be, so an increase to our budgets as a result of increased costs of goods or services that are being passed on through other suppliers and vendors, we don’t know what that impact’s going to be. ”

He said it was entirely possible there will be zero impact on the city’s finances, depending on how much the rebate program pays out.

“It could actually net out to zero for the (City of Saskatoon) based on what we’re hearing. We’re waiting for the rules to come back as to what that rebate program looks like,” he said.

Tarasoff said one place people would likely notice a change is on their power bills. He said this was because Saskatoon Light and Power was passing on a rate hike that it was getting from SaskPower. The increase was expected to work out to about $18 a year for an average customer.