SASKATOON – The City of Saskatoon has implemented a mandatory spending and hiring freeze to deal with the city’s projected deficit.
The city’s Chief Financial Officer Kerry Tarasoff said Friday that he’s still calculating the numbers but anticipates it to be in “the red” heading into the year’s end.
The freeze will limit travel and training and any other spending that can be put on hold until January.
The projected deficit is made up of snow removal costs from last year, spring street sweeping and the transit lockout, but officials ensure all city services will run as normal.
“The city will provide the service, it’s in our business, we have a stabilization fund if we have a deficit so we’re covered there to cover off the year end number but if it snows we’re clearing off the snow,” said Tarasoff.
Tarasoff says a voluntary freeze was implemented a couple years ago and they ended up with a surplus. He doesn’t think that will be the case this year.
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