Saskatoon city council to hold first emergency budget meeting

Saskatoon’s city council will hold the first of several scheduled emergency budget meetings Thursday.

The goal will be to get the 2024 budget figured out, as the city is currently facing a projected $52.4-million shortfall for the year ahead. If that number isn’t dealt with, residents could face an 18 per cent property tax increase.

At the meeting, city administration will present council with 24 different options to help bring that projected shortfall down to $22.4 million.

Mayor Charlie Clark said he knows the city has to get to a more reasonable number.

“What do we really need to make sure we need to keep, and what kind of thing can we put off? We know nobody can handle these double-digit tax increases,” Clark told CKOM morning show host Mark Loshack.

Delaying construction projects and road maintenance could be the first items considered as the city looks to get spending down

“There will be a process of identifying where we can make those deferrals and adjustments, and those will be voted on as part of the budget process,” Clark said. “We’re going to know what the options are, and then they’ll be voted on in a public city council meeting.”

A preview of some of the items on the chopping block can be found in the City of Saskatoon’s meeting minutes.

While there is a large task ahead, city manager Jeff Jorgensen said last week he’s confident council will be able to figure something out to prevent the huge increase to property taxes.

“Because we have the fully funded asset management plans in recent years for many of our assets, we’re in a position where we’re probably as well-placed as any municipality to really weather this storm,” Jorgensen said.

“We will be bringing forward a series of recommendations, but we will also be making difficult recommendations – really largely around stretching out some of these payments so we can have a strategy to get back to our fully funded asset management plans – yet not dealing with the full impact of inflation in that compressed period of time in 2024 and 2025.”

He added that budget deliberations won’t take place until November, and there’s still time to get things sorted out.

.@charlieclarkyxe makes a few comments about #yxe's AAA credit rating, says city is starting from a strong position and that they're going to do everything they can not to bring in a huge tax increase. Also says it's a "very challenging situation."@CKOMNews

— Lara Fominoff (@LaraFominoff) June 22, 2023