SASKATOON – City council meets on Wednesday to discuss selling Saskatoon police headquarters, a projected deficit, property taxes, Kinsmen Park upgrades and SIIT bus passes.
City council will be asked to approve the purchase of the Vecima building and its parking lots for $13.4 million to solve the city’s office needs for the next 20 years.
The city was going to use the current Saskatoon police headquarters after they moved to 25th Street, but have since realized it’s too small.
Councillors are expected to decide on putting the current police headquarters up for sale and using that profit to off-set the purchase cost of the Vecima building.
If approved, administration will issue a tender for sale of the Saskatoon police building and parking lot with a reserve bid of $15.6 million.
Council will be asked to receive the second quarter status update for Saskatoon’s 2013 Corporate Business Plan and Budget.
A deficit of just over $2 million is currently being projected.
Administration is reviewing all spending and revenue sources with the intention of ending 2013 with a balanced budget.
Wednesday’s meeting is expected to discuss increasing property taxes to improve Saskatoon roads.
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An executive committee meeting on Monday discussed plans to increase property taxes by almost three per cent annually over the next three years to close a $19.8 million funding gap needed to improve deteriorating roads.
That’s on top of the 1.25 per cent increase in 2013.
Councillors will also be asked to receive an update on the amended timeline for the Kinsmen Park Project Phase One.
In July, the city announced that phase one construction that was scheduled to start that month had been delayed after the only bid came in significantly over budget.
The city will now be re-tendering the project at the end of October.
Phase one construction is now expected to start in early 2014 with it opening to the public in 2015.
Lastly, city council will be asked to extend a bus pass agreement with the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) for another school year.
Universal Pass or U-Pass expired for students and both Saskatoon Transit and SIIT have deemed the pilot program to have been a success.
Introduced in 2012, U-Pass provides aboriginal post-secondary students with unlimited bus access in the city. All SIIT students pay a mandatory fee at the start the school year.
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