Saskatoon council approves 6.04% property tax hike for 2024

After a record four days of debating and deliberating, Saskatoon city councillors have decided property taxes will go up by 6.04 per cent in 2024 and 5.64 per cent in 2025.

Even after 25 hours of deliberations during special budget meetings over the summer and another 30 hours of deliberations in the past week, council trimmed just 1.1 per cent from next year’s property tax increase, while the projected increase actually went up slightly for the following year.

According to Clae Hack, the city’s chief financial officer, the owners of an average home assessed at $344,000 will pay $10.47 more per month in 2024 and $10.37 per month in 2025.

Hack said there were certainly a lot of lessons learned throughout the process.

“When you look at budgets right now across Canada there’s a lot of other municipalities right now facing similar challenges,” he said.

Hack said it’s important to let both council and the public know about the challenges that council and administration would face going into the budget deliberations.

“We were one of the first out of the gates to start having these discussions with our council which, we thought, was very important — looking at the landscape of inflationary pressures and trying to allow for as much time as possible for us to have meaningful discussions to bring it down,” he explained.

The funding gap began at more than $75 million over two years, and was brought down by nearly $40 million, landing at just over $35 million over two years.

According to information provided by the city, it’s the highest tax increase in a decade, as property taxes went up by 7.43 per cent in 2014.

Mayor Charlie Clark said the potential tax increase that would be necessary to manage those funding gaps was brought down by two thirds.

“There’s many, many pressure points for the city right now. As we continue to grow at record numbers, both in terms of people moving here and in terms of job creation,” the mayor said. “That puts a lot of pressure on the city to be able to keep up with those demands.”

Clark acknowledged that he and council would likely face criticism from residents due to the tax hikes, but he said there are also others that understand there needed to be a balance in order to keep the city running.

“Building a city is about more than paving streets,” Clark said. “It’s about quality of life for our residents.”

Coun. Bev Dubois, who voted against the budget, had a different take, saying that it wasn’t just property taxes where residents will be hit with higher costs.

“I am disappointed in the budget,” Dubois said. “I was hoping that it would be at four per cent or less. It’s not only the mill rate; it’s also the water, the wastewater, the infrastructure, the new black cart utility charge. So the taxpayer has a lot of extra costs coming up in the new year.”

She said she thinks many Saskatoon residents would feel the same way, as she’s been hearing from residents ever since the budget deliberations began.

Councillors Randy Donauer, Darren Hill, and Troy Davies also voted against the budget.