At question-and-answer luncheon Tuesday morning, Saskatoon’s business community thanked the mayor for hosting a first-of-its-kind business forum earlier this month.
The NSBA welcomed Cynthia Block to Prairieland Park, where she assured the crowd that the forum wasn’t the end of the discussion; it was only the beginning of a lifelong communication strategy.
“I was really impressed with how many people signed up to be a part of it. We sent out a survey first to businesses right across the entire city. Anyone with a business license got one. We had more than 700 businesses respond, and then when we opened it up for the option to go to the forum, it was way oversubscribed. We didn’t have enough room.”
Block says for those who were left on the waiting list, there will be opportunities to provide feedback and be heard in the near future.
However, it wasn’t all praise. Business owners also posed questions regarding property taxes, AI, bike lanes, and safety; the number one concern in the community.
Block explained that City Council will be tasked with addressing that issue during upcoming budget deliberations at the end of the month.
Council will be given several options to consider, including additional community support officers, more police officers, or implementing an Indigenous peacekeeper model pilot project. However, the police budget already accounts for about half of the proposed 8.23 per cent property tax increase for 2026.
“That’s what the police service needs, so I will be supporting that budget. Is that the only way we can support community safety? I think there are other ways, which is why I’m excited about some of those other options as well.”
Other concerns floating around the business scene include a potential homelessness levy, which Block says Council will not be looking at seriously anytime soon.
The idea was posed in the recent civic satisfaction survey, where 63 per cent of respondents said they would pay a small monthly fee to address homelessness in the city.
The potential charge has been a hot topic for the last week, but the mayor says it’s not something the City is looking at right now.
“No intentions of bringing that forward at this time. What I would just add, if and when that became something to consider, there would be a long runway to talk about that. It wouldn’t just be brought in.”
The civic satisfaction survey had a sample size of about 400 people, or 0.1 per cent of the population. However, Block says the information in those results are statistically relevant and will be used as a reference to make decisions at budget deliberations on November 25-27.
