Saskatoon council approves increased police, library budgets as deliberations begin

Saskatoon City Council is working to reduce a projected property tax increase of 7.43 per cent for 2026 and a further hike of 5.92 per cent for 2027.

Three days of budget deliberations began on Tuesday, with council approving the city’s police and library budgets.

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Cam McBride, Saskatoon’s police chief, urged councillors to approve the $158 million police budget for 2026 and the $167 million the force requested for 2027, saying the current workload for officers is bordering on “unmanageable.”

Those numbers represent an 8.6 per cent increase for 2026 and a 6.1 per cent increase in 2027, adding a combined total of more than $22 million to Saskatoon’s policing budget. The bulk of the increase will be used to hire more staff – 20 new officers in 2026 and 29 the following year.

Ward 9 Coun. Bev Dubois asked McBride what would happen if the increased budget was not approved. McBride answered that officers are working at “their absolute maximum,” and said if the increased budget was not approved, he would have to consider shifting some officers from community positions over to law-enforcement roles.

Two councilors, Ward 1’s Kathryn MacDonald and Ward 6 Coun. Jasmin Parker voted against the police budget, with Parker telling McBride she struggled with the record-breaking requests from police.

“We don’t need to invest in bloat,” Parker said, adding that she believes other core services will need to be reduced in order to support the increased policing budget.

Speaking to reporters, McBride said he knew the police budget represented a significant increase, but he noted that some savings were found along the way.

“I believe we were left with a necessary and responsible budget,” he said. “It will set us on track in 2026 to start to get a really good impact.”

The Saskatoon Public Library budget, with increases totaling about $1.7 million in 2026 and $2.3 million in 2027, was unanimously approved, with library CEO Carol Shepstone and Mayor Cynthia Block emphasizing that the library budget would cost less than eight dollars per year per person.

Saskatoon Library’s budget for 2026 will come to around $36 million, while in 2027 it will total just over $38.3 million.

A breakdown of expenses isn’t available for the public library because no detailed budget numbers were submitted. A motion for the library board to submit additional budget information in future years was passed unanimously.

Wednesday’s agenda is expected to begin with presentations and delegations from Remai Modern gallery and event venues TCU Place and SaskTel Centre, followed by reports to council on funding updates.

Deliberations begin with tense exchange between councilor, STC chief

The deliberations began with a request from Ward 4 Coun. Troy Davies to move Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand to the top of the speaker’s list on the topic of Indigenous peacekeeping because he had another engagement to attend.

That request drew some pointed questions from Ward 3 Coun. Robert Pearce, who has frequently been a critic of the tribal council’s shelter in Fairhaven.

“We all have other places to be,” said Pearce.

“As someone who has sat in this audience, waited six hours to speak, I’m trying to understand why all of a sudden we’re giving preferential treatment under this circumstance.”

Block said the motion had been moved and seconded, while Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer said he also had concerns and agreed with Pearce.

“I’m not going to get into debating who’s the most important person in the room today, and I have a lot of respect for the tribal chief,” Donauer said

But, Donauer added, of all of the topics council is going to cover during the week, he didn’t think the order of speakers was close to the top of the list.

During his presentation, Arcand fired back a response before continuing to speak about the importance of an initiative for Indigenous peacekeepers.

“I’m always feeling under attack as our organization, and to me it’s very unacceptable, so I wanna give direction to yourself, your worship, and to city council. If you’re gonna talk about the Saskatoon Tribal Council, don’t talk about us, talk with us so we can defend ourselves,” he said.

“There’s Facebook warriors, there’s all these things that are happening from even councilors that is unacceptable, and I think there has to be some accountability in that, right?”

The exchange lasted about 10 minutes before Arcand continued his presentation.