As of right now, Saskatoon City Council has managed to achieve around $1.8 million in savings over two days of budget deliberations.
Councilor Randy Donauer led the City to make the first cut Wednesday when he brought forward a motion for a 3 per cent reduction of contributions to capital reserves impacting the mill rate, excluding the fire and roadways preservation reserves.

If the roadways and fire reserves were included, the City would achieve savings of $2.6 million. Without their inclusion, roughly $1.4 million will be salvaged.

In addition, Council also approved another reduction of $200,000 to reduce billboard locations and reduce land maintenance expenditures. They also saved $210,000 as a result of cuts in the Utilities department.

When it came to Enviromental Health plans and recommendations, there were a total of roughly $307,000 in potential reductions. These reductions could have come from practices such as discontinuing the Christmas tree drop off, adjusting the hours at the landfill and Material Recovery Centre, an extension of the tree pruning cycle, and a reduction in tree planting. Councilors agreed to discontinue to Christmas tree drop-off, saving $25,000. They also eliminated Healthy Yards and Boulevard Gardening Advertising & Support, saving $11,600. The motion on whether or not to eliminate 11 Full Time Equivalents for the Material Recovery Centre was defeated 6-5.

These savings translate to over a 0.5 percent decrease in the proposed property tax rate, which was originally estimated at 18.56 per cent for 2024 and 6.95 per cent in 2025 in order to combat the City’s forecasted deficits.

These deficits were originally slated as $52.4 million in 2024 and $23.2 million in 2025.

During special budget meetings in August, the City found cuts to bring down the 2024 and 2025 deficits to $26.2 million and $19.3 million. In turn, the proposed tax increase for the next two years came down to just under 9 per cent next year, followed by a just over 6 per cent increase in 2025.