Don’t expect to see a homelessness levy on your tax bill anytime soon, city manager says

Saskatoon City Manager Jeff Jorgenson at a committee meeting on April 10, 2025. (Keenan Sorokan / CTV News)

Saskatoon’s city manager is clarifying there are no plans to implement a homelessness tax.

The idea came to public attention following the release of the city services survey earlier this month. According to the survey, released Nov. 6, 63 per cent of Saskatoon residents who responded to the survey said they would be willing to pay some amount each month to increase services for the city’s homeless population.

That section came as a surprise to Ward 9 Coun. Bev Dubois, who brought it up at the regular meeting of city council on Wednesday morning.

“I’m just wondering, is the city considering a homelessness tax, and why was it on the survey question with specific amounts? I believe it was $5 to $9 — very specific amounts. And who decided to put that in survey?”

• Get the latest news from Saskatoon, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

City Manager Jeff Jorgenson said the survey questions were intended to get a broad sense of the public’s support for investing in measures to deal with homelessness on a voluntary basis, not with an eye to implementing a new tax.

“No, the city has not considered a levy or a dedicated tax for homelessness, nor do we have direction from council to even report on the matter,” Jorgenson told Dubois Wednesday morning.

“The premise was … could there be a capital campaign, or something similar, that the city could consider for people who wish to donate to homelessness?”

The issue of homelessness has been top-of-mind for city residents for the last two years, based on the civic satisfaction surveys.

“We knew that homelessness was one of the major concerns in both the last civic satisfaction survey and on this one,” said Jorgenson.

This year, about 78 per cent of respondents said the city should put more resources toward addressing homelessness. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they would be willing to pay some amount, while 37 per cent were not willing to pay.

“What we find when we put questions about general saying, ‘Would you like a service increase?’ The answer is almost always yes. The answer changes, though, when you ask people, are you prepared to pay,” the city manager said.

“Really those questions were intended to gauge … what are people’s views about the city investing in homelessness?”

Jorgenson says the city has no intention or direction from council to explore any kind of levy or dedicated tax for homelessness. If there was, Jorgenson says administration would approach it as a voluntary, fundraising-type initiative.

In some ways, the direct and indirect costs of homelessness are already baked into the budget, he says.

“It costs the city money to clean up encampments. It costs the fire community support program, for example — it’s largely focused on supporting homeless people in the downtown and supporting downtown businesses. So, you know, there are costs in the budget and there are additional costs in future budgets, related [to homelessness].”