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Saskatoon city council is taking a first step towards lessening the blow of a budget deficit caused by COVID-19.
Councillors voted 10-1 Monday in favour of a host of recommendations that will apply to everything from street sweeping and parking to road maintenance, transportation, recreational centres and parks operations. Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill voted against.
City Chief Financial Officer Kerry Tarasoff presented the report to councillors, outlining three scenarios that could play out depending on when physical distancing restrictions and services re-opened.
The projections, he said, are based on information outlined by the provincial government both before and after the ‘re-opening’ plan announced last week by Premier Scott Moe. Many adjustments were made just last week.
Scenarios presented by CFO
According to the three scenarios, if restrictions are lifted by June 30, the City could see a deficit of nearly $32.4 million. If certain actions are undertaken, that could be reduced to $20.2 million. Additional financial help might be secured from either provincial or federal governments to ease that burden as well.
If restrictions are lifted Sept. 30, the City could see a $52.7 million dollar deficit. That could also be reduced to $32 million with some belt tightening.
And if restrictions continue until Dec. 31, that deficit may reach nearly $69 million. With actions undertaken by the City, it might be reduced to $43 million.
“Eleven key principles have been followed by the administration, with public health and safety being the most important,” explained Tarasoff. “While it is the administration’s intent to keep services to citizens unaffected as much as possible, services and the delivery of services have been adjusted in order to adhere to physical distancing restrictions and to ensure citizen and employee health are a priority.”
The report does not include impacts to Saskatoon police, Sasktel Centre, TCU Place, the Public Library and Remai Modern Art Gallery.
Non-essential spending
Eleven appendices were included in the report to council, addressing the areas in which administration felt services should remain at or near regular service levels, or where there could be some cost savings.
Street cleaning and sweeping will remain at near normal levels with typical staffing levels. It won’t be completed until late July however, because of the late start. Parking restrictions will be advertised with sandwich boards and there will NOT be any ticketing or towing of non-compliant vehicles at a cost of $300,000 to the city.
Coun. Hill introduced a proposed amendment to that idea as a way for the city to continue generating some income from ticketing.
“This is not a safety measure,” he said. “It’s a compliance issue.”
The amendment was defeated 7-4.
While there won’t be a hiring freeze per se, staff will only be hired if positions are essential and only with special procedures in place to maintain distancing and worker safety. Along with travel and training reductions, there should be a savings of close to three million dollars.
“We will be hiring a number of seasonal staff as outlined in the report, but … it will just be essential positions that we’d be hiring. So, every hiring decision that comes through whether it’s a retirement or a vacancy, or whatever reason, the department head will need to scrutinize that and only essential will be approved.”
That means some initiatives will slow down or be deferred.
Paving and pothole repair will continue at near typical service levels, saving the city a projected $250,000, while transit and transportation will also continue at near typical service levels.
Nearly $110,000 can be saved with a two-week delay of weekly garbage collection to begin in mid-May, while Household Hazardous Waste drop-offs will be scaled back.
Parks, cemetery, Forestry and Park Zoo operations will also be limited, saving nearly two million dollars.
About $4.8 million from the Fiscal Stabilization Reserve and other existing reserves will go towards the deficit in 202 and 2021, for a total savings of more than $9.5 million.