‘Less affordable for people to live here’: City council set to deliberate two-year budget cycle

WATCH: Saskatoon councillors are pulling out the pruning shears as they prepare for budget talks starting Tuesday.

The stage is set for some long and interesting days at Saskatoon City Hall, with councillors and the mayor looking to finalize the city’s budget for the next two years, by the end of the week.

Councillors are looking at some of the largest property tax increases in the city’s history.

Administration has set a preliminary hike of 7.43 per cent for 2026 and 5.92 per cent for 2027. Those figures are already lower than the original estimates from Nov. 6, when administration called for increases of 8.23 per cent and 5.95 per cent, respectively, due to updated assessment growth figures for the coming year.

Given the larger increases in recent years, Saskatoon businesses will be following along closely to see if those numbers shrink further through deliberations.

“You have a scenario where it’s becoming less and less sustainable and less and less affordable for people to live here, and for job creators to do business here, if you continue on a path of perpetual tax increases with seemingly no end in sight” says Jason Aebig, CEO of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.

The city has pitched the increase as necessary to maintain current service levels, as inflation and population growth continue to impact city finances.

Aebig said the city has normalized large property tax increases in recent years, and homeowners and business owners may not have the patience for them year after year – especially if the city is up front about no improvements matching a higher bill.

“If we do not change course, these increases will outpace the capacity of the average business owner to pay them or pass them on,” he said.

“That means we have economic stagnation in this city, and then we are in real trouble.”

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With six rookie councillors taking on their first two-year budget. and Mayor Cynthia Block overseeing the process for the first time, there’s plenty of room to find additional savings.

Administration has given council 108 separate options to reduce the property tax hike.

“Ask and challenge the status quo, dig deep and demand better of services and programs that may be underperforming,” says Aebig.

Block is challenging the status quo. Since her campaign for mayor last year she’s been calling for municipalities in Canada to find a new financial framework with the federal government to fund growing cities.

The last two years have seen property tax increases of 11 per cent combined, excluding assessments and re-assessments which can greatly impact municipal property taxes.

Some cities are worse off than Saskatoon this year.

Regina is forecasting a 15.69 per cent increase to property taxes next year to maintain services. Winnipeg is looking at increasing property taxes by 3.5 per cent after a 5.95 per cent increase this year, which is similar to the situation facing Calgary.

“We want a new deal,” said Block at a business luncheon last week.

“Cities right across the country know that’s necessary, and I think the only way we get there is if we lean in together, all the cities together. I think that there’s a lot we can do to make this a fairer system, and one that doesn’t have the same kinds of shocks to the system that we’ve seen.”

Aebig and North Saskatoon Business Association Executive Director Keith Moen are calling on the city to implement rolling audits in each department to help keep property tax increases low.

Both believe if this is what it takes to maintain service levels, the city should explore what services are worth maintaining.

“I think that without a full knowledge, people will always have questions,” Moen said. “I think that this value for money audit process would be a benefit to them so that they could, in fact, show taxpayers, ratepayers. where the dollars are going.”

In 2024 Saskatoon was looking at a double-digit increase to property taxes before finding enough savings to implement a 6.04 per cent in 2024, and a 4.96 per cent increase last year, largely from deferring spending to future years and raising various fees.