Saskatoon city councillor discusses budget shortfall deliberations

Saskatoon’s Ward 6 Coun. Cynthia Block gave her two cents when it comes to the budget deliberations that are taking place at city hall throughout the summer.

The city is facing a $52.4-million funding shortage next year, followed by a $23.2-million gap in 2025, which has been equated to an 18.56 per cent property tax increase in 2024, and a 6.95 per cent property tax increase the following year.

1:42 Dispute around city staff continues as city faces budget shortfall

A meeting on June 14 had city administration facing a flood of questions from city councillors looking to get a grasp on the budget, and another budget discussion meeting on June 22 resulted in a standstill after several hours of deliberations.

“Just to be clear, the 2023 budget is not in a deficit situation, at least not to my knowledge. At this point, what we’re talking about is on a go-forward basis, that we have an erosion of the buying power of the city due to inflation and a host of other things,” Block said.

She addressed the frustration seen by city councillors when it comes to the budget talks, noting council wants to move forward as quickly as possible to understand how they can keep property taxes as low as possible.

Block also addressed the decision to have council work with city administrators to whittle down the shortfall rather than having the administration come back with suggestions, noting the administration has the expertise, but council members have been hearing from residents.

1:34 Budget discussions come to standstill after hours of deliberation

“The expertise belongs with our administration, however, I think we’re the ones who hear from residents. We understand the sensitivities, how much they want to keep the basic services that they have.”

Follow-up meetings around budget discussions are going to be held July 25 and Aug. 15, and Block said by then she hopes they’ll have some direction for administration.

“In my view, by then we’ll probably start, hopefully, to be in a situation to potentially ask our administration to come up with a number.”

She said she’s uncertain what council will choose, noting they are facing inflationary pressures on construction, which has been extremely expensive.

Not every city councillor is as optimistic as Block, as Darren Hill said back on June 29 that he would like to see an independent review of city staff, noting the city doesn’t have a revenue problem, but instead faces a spending problem.

“We’ll never get that funding gap addressed if we don’t cut staff,” Hill said.

“We spend more than we bring in. You can’t run your household like that. We shouldn’t be running the city like that.”

Hill said he’s not confident the city will be able to make the cuts he feels needs to happen in the city.