Saskatoon councillors vote for $6.4 million cost-saving plan

Saskatoon city councillors are hoping a cost-saving plan will help shore up this year's budget.

At Monday's governance and priorities committee, councillors voted in favour of a plan that would generate $6.46 million through spending cutbacks and drawing money from reserve funds.

During 2022-23 budget deliberations, council asked administration to find $7 million in cost savings in an attempt to stave off larger property tax increases.

Speaking at the meeting, executive director of the Riversdale Business Improvement District Randy Pshebylo said the move was a step in the right direction.

"I'd like to thank council and administration for their efforts in looking at ways to look at expenditures and how best to do that on behalf of hundreds of businesses here who've been saddled with extraordinary property tax increases," he said..

The cost-saving plan involves finding $2.2 million in savings at city hall and $4.2 million in reserve funds.

The savings include $1 million generated through deferred hiring of new staff when a position opens up, as well as $500,000 in reduced training.

Administration said it is being careful to make sure the hiring deferrals will affect services as little as possible.

"We've been trying to achieve them through new positions that potentially were budgeted to start on Jan. 1," said the city's chief financial officer Clae Hack.

"Our goal is to potentially hire them a couple of months later at mid-year, depending on what the service level impact is."

Councillors did not support a plan that would have sought out a further $778,000 in savings through reduced services, including cuts to roadway maintenance, street cleaning and sweeping and trimming tree branches around powerlines in parks.

During the meeting, administration said that higher than normal gas prices could negatively impact spending, although it was not clear how much it would impact the budget.

In December, Saskatoon city council approved a 3.86 per cent property tax increase in 2022. That means an average homeowner with a house worth $344,000 will pay an extra $74.04, or an additional $6.17 per month

Administration said it would continue to look for extra spending cuts throughout the year.