Council backs most options to reduce Saskatoon property tax increases

Saskatoon city council has started hacking away at the looming property tax increases, but residents will find other fees for city services jumping.

Council began the methodical process Wednesday of sifting through a list of 108 options to reduce tax hikes for next year and 2027. By 5 p.m., council had dropped the tax increases to 6.43 per cent for next year and 5.75 per cent for 2027. 

Coun. Robert Pearce said he thought the process was working well through two days.

“I don’t want to say I want to see a specific number,” Pearce told reporters of the reduced increases. “I will say at the end of this I want to be satisfied that we did everything we could to bring [tax increases] down as low as we could.”

Those numbers have dropped from 7.43 per cent and 5.95 per cent, respectively, at the start of budget talks. The lower numbers translate to respective annual increases of $151.92 and $144.60 for the next two years for a median assessed home worth $394,000.

Council fell short of reaching the halfway mark on the options, with most still remaining to be discussed on Thursday, the final scheduled day of civic budget talk.

More potentially contentious options lie ahead, such as reducing bus service and possibly closing George Ward Pool.

Council passed most of the proposed measures to either reduce spending or increase revenue. Some of the options will save as little as $7,000 [to reduce the mailed tax reminder letters from three times to twice a year]. Others represent much more substantial savings.

Only seven of the 46 options for cuts considered so far were defeated outright, although several were altered.

The defeated measures included a proposal to close the downtown public washrooms under the Broadway Bridge outside of events to save $40,000. Council rejected that one unanimously, with Mayor Cynthia Block citing “human dignity” as her reason for opposition.

Among some of the notable increases approved is a $5 jump to the entrance fee for the landfill; it will increase to $20 from $15. The fees for weight at the landfill will also rise to $108 per tonne next year and $112/tonne in 2027.

That will make Saskatoon’s landfill entrance fee higher than the two other landfills in the region, but loads of less than 150 kilograms will remain exempt from additional fees in Saskatoon.

Council opted not to eliminate the exemption. The nearby landfills lack such an exemption, council heard. But the fee increase alone is expected to raise $345,900 starting next year.

Some parking tickets will also jump by $10 to raise an extra $500,000. Most tickets now cost $50.