With a special budget meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning (Thurs), the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce is renewing its call for a seven per cent reduction across all departments and city-funded agencies, rather than going line-by-line in these meetings. The Chamber’s CEO, Jason Aebig, says to date, there have been no substantial reductions in budgets or positions.

One of the areas to be covered at the meeting is Arts, Culture and Events Venues. Aebig notes that if their recommendation of a seven per cent cut were to be followed, that would mean saving $679,000 but Administration’s cuts total $41,000. The Chamber CEO says from what he has seen, there aren’t enough savings in the recommendations from Administration to date.

Aebig believes that unless Council can find the political will and the courage to make the tough choices, they could end up with a marathon budget meeting at the end of November where Council will have to find big cuts to get that property tax range where it needs to be.

Right now, without any more cuts or revenue boosts, property tax would increase 8.54 per cent next year and 6.04 per cent in 2025. One of the revenue items being discussed at the meeting is an increase in parking ticket penalties from $50 to $70 for late pay penalties and from $30 to $40 for the reduced penalty rates. If all of Administration’s recommended options are approved at the special budget meeting, it would add almost $3.8 million in revenue next year.