‘Poor leadership’: Survey of 700 Saskatoon businesses criticizes mayor, city hall

WATCH: A survey of nearly 700 Saskatoon business leaders shows the mayor has plenty of work to do to win back support from the commerce community.

A survey of nearly 700 Saskatoon business leaders shows the mayor has plenty of work to do to win back support from the commerce community.

A summary of the survey results obtained by CTV News details several criticisms and complaints of council and the mayor.

Mayor Cynthia Block held a forum with some of the survey participants earlier this week at TCU Place, and she says she welcomes the feedback.

“We know there’s frustrations and we share those frustrations,” Block said. “It doesn’t matter if the data shows that our overall spending is down 10 per cent over the last decade when adjusted for inflation, that doesn’t mean anything if people on the ground are struggling.”

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When asked to rate the relationship between the city and businesses in Saskatoon, the average rating was 4.5 out of 10.

When asked to expand on the rankings, respondents highlighted downtown safety issues, city governance and leadership, and taxes as main concerns.

“It’s like any customer service survey — people are going to tell you what they think and they are passionate about it, and nine times out of ten, they are completely valid in what they are sharing,” Jason Aebig, the CEO of the greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, said.

The compiled results describe downtown as “unsafe” due to open drug use and aggressive behaviour. Criticisms are directed to council and the mayor for “poor leadership and lack of business understanding.”

Many businesses complained about property tax increases being too high, with some saying this led directly to reduced profitability and rising operating costs.

On Thursday, city administration tabled a budget requiring an 8.32 per cent increase to property taxes, which is likely to be lower than that when finalized at the end of the month, but it may not be low enough for Aebig’s membership.

“Our primary interest is really around the sustainability of all this,” Aebig said of continual property tax hikes in recent years. “Can we continue to operate using the same approach that we’re using to deliver programs and services into the future?”

Another complaint about city fees, licensing costs and affordability pressures were common. Aebig says there are easy solutions to some of these recurring complaints, like having a streamlined “automatic yes” for low-level permits and licenses that currently take days or weeks to turn around.

Aebig says city staff shouldn’t be tied up to process a simple request from an accredited plumber or electrician who has filed this paperwork many times over.

To address safety, businesses call for more police presence, faster response times and tougher enforcement. There’s also “deep frustration” with encampments, shelters and street disorder.

“It’s a point of frustration when a business owner/operator is trusting the public systems, the public programs, the public services that they are contributing to, like everybody else,” Aebig said. “And there isn’t a change that they are seeing and experiencing in front of their own operation.”

Block called this survey is the starting point of a larger dialogue to begin addressing these concerns.

“We can’t be a strong community without a strong business community. Businesses are our partners, not problems to solve,” Block said.

Businesses are calling for more than eliminating red tape.

The results show a “strong theme” that City Hall is slow, inefficient and overly bureaucratic” with “duplicated departments, too many staff and lack of accountability.”

Business leaders are calling on Block and council to promote Saskatoon as a place to invest, while many others provided positive responses with no further suggestions.

Aebig commended the mayor for undertaking the project and believes she will act quickly to further this relationship between businesses and City Hall. He said it’s been years since businesses were given the opportunity to provide this level of detailed feedback.

Now that the information is gathered, Block has heard the messages from the business community loud and clear and wants to improve the relationship moving forward.

“These are pieces that are personal to me because of my background in communications and seem like things that we should be able to fix,” she said. “And I’m ready to roll up my sleeves.”