Saskatoon’s city council budget deliberations don’t begin until Nov. 28 but the city has released its preliminary operating and capital summary budget for 2024/25.
The city’s chief financial officer Clae Hack said there are three documents around the preliminary budget that usually get released all at the same time, but said this year they wanted to make sure residents and council have as much time as possible to look over the documents.
“In our prior multi-year budgets, we had released our three budget documents at the same time. This year, to allow for as much time as possible for city council, stakeholders and residents to review the preliminary budget documents before budget deliberations, the 2024/2025 preliminary budget documents will now be released as they each become finalized by administration,” Hack said.
The remaining documents to be released include the detailed capital budget as well as the budget introduction and climate budget.
“Today’s budget release provides the background context and full details on the proposed funding requirements for the City’s 87 different Service Lines. It also reflects the approximately $35 million in budgetary decisions made by City Council over the course of dedicated Special Budget Meetings held over the summer.”
“City Council and Administration have continued to work together to address the unprecedented inflationary pressures faced not only by the City of Saskatoon, but many other municipalities across Canada. We are committed to investing the City’s budget wisely for today, and for the future, and delivering our services and programs with the most value for taxpayer dollars in our community for all residents who call Saskatoon home,” Hack added.
It was stressed that changes to finalize the business plan and budget will likely happen during budget deliberations, but the starting point for property tax increases are a 7.14 per cent increase in 2024 and a 5.7 per cent increase in 2025.
The whopping 474-page document goes line-by-line into different business lines like the Saskatoon Police Service, Saskatoon Public Library, Transportation, Recreation and Culture and Taxation and General Revenues.
The summary goes into detail about performance measures in each business line, key risks and mitigation strategies, some financial plan summaries, as well as a list of changes that will be seen in 2024 and 2025.
Some details highlighted by the city include:
- An investment of $72 million in 2024 and $78 million in 2025 into the City’s Roadway Maintenance and Rehabilitation Programs
- Investment in two new firehall
- An investment of $10.8 million in 2024 and $11.8 million in 2025 into the City’s Facility Maintenance Program
- Opening of the City’s Material Recovery Centre
- Investment into the City’s Snow and Ice Management Program to repay the 2022 Emergency Snow Response and to build funding to respond to future emergency/large-scale snow events
- Increased funding for several services including Fire, Parks, Street Lighting, Sidewalks, Transit and Street Sweeping
Three days are set aside for budget deliberations, running from Nov. 28 to 30.