Saskatoon homeowners looking at 3.86% property tax increase in 2022

After three days of budget deliberations, Saskatoon city council approved its finances for 2022 and 2023 on Wednesday evening.

The new budget includes a property tax hike of more than 3.8 per cent for 2022 and 3.5 per cent for 2023.

The 3.86 per cent increase next year means an average homeowner with a house worth $344,000 will pay an extra $74.04,or an additional $6.17 per month.

For 2023, the tax increase translates to an extra $70.43 per year or $5.87 per month.

The approved rise in property taxes is higher than the initially recommended 3.51 per cent increase for 2022 in the preliminary budget.

A majority ofcouncillors voted in favour of the new budget, with the exceptions of Darren Hill, Randy Donauer and Bev Dubois

"I look forward to implementing this budget with our staff and with our council and hopefully get into a time where we're going to see the city light up again in terms of economic recovery and activity in the community," said Mayor Charlie Clark on Wednesday.

"I absolutely understand that our citizens want to know that we're getting the maximum value out of the dollars spent."

Clark said the budgeting process needs to be a balance between finding ways to save money while also providing services that address some of the key issues Saskatoon faces.

Operating options affect property tax increase

City councillors were poring over financial documents Monday through Wednesday to decide where the city's money should be spent in 2022 and 2023.

On the third day of budget deliberations, Saskatoon city council was looking through a list of optional initiatives.

The optional projects fall under various categories and departments, including Transportation, the fire department, and Environmental Health.

The associated costs were not included as expenditures in the administration's proposed budget.

"City council can choose to include or phase-in any of the identified initiatives which would have an impact to the property tax rate," a document outlining operating and capital options said.

The list of operating initiatives for council to consider ended up being longer than expected, said Clark on Wednesday before councillors went through the options one after the other.

"I know we all have the goal to find the right balance between meeting some of the key needs in our community and also finding a reasonable place for the property tax increase to be."

Individual budgets approved Tuesday and Wednesday

On Monday and Tuesday, councillors discussed and approved individual operating budgets for different departments such as Saskatoon Police Service andTransportation.

The largest portion of Saskatoon's operating expenditures will go to the Saskatoon Police Service with an investment of around $119.7 million in 2022 and $124.6 million in 2023.

On Tuesday afternoon, city council also approved the operating budgetfor utilities, including Saskatoon Light & Power. Councillors Darren Hill and Bev Dubois were the only ones who opposedthe recommended utilities budget.

The city's combined water and wastewater rates are set to go up for citizens by 2.5 per cent in 2022 and 3.5 per cent in 2023.

"The fixed water rate increase for a residential property in 2022 would be 58 cents a month, and in 2023 it would be 42 cents a month," said Angela Gardiner, general manager of utilities and environment on Wednesday.

The money people have to pay alsodepends on the amount of water they use, according to Gardiner.

Saskatoon Light and Power rates are tied to those charged by SaskPower, but Gardiner assumed an increase of around 1.75 per cent.

"That would result in 44 cents a month for the fixed fee," she said.

On Tuesday, city councillors unanimously approved the recommended operating budget for the Saskatoon Fire Department, which includes a total of $55,795,700 in expenditures for 2022 and $1,269,900 for 2023.

One of the key unfunded projects in the fire department's budget was next-generation 911 (NG911), said fire chief Morgan Hackl on Tuesday. The fire department's 10-year-old dispatch system needs updates to become NG911 compliant in order to allow people to send texts, images and videos to dispatchers.

The item was on the city's prioritized capital initiatives list, which city councillors approved on Wednesday.