This week the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation released a report which contains detailed information on municipal spending as well as an online database where taxpayers can view and compare municipal financial statements.
Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director, says the information is important for taxpayers because it makes it much easier for taxpayers to compare how much is being spent in their community versus other communities in the province and that gives them the ammunition to go to city council for more information on what is behind the spending.
The CTF data shows that for Saskatchewan’s two largest cities, Saskatoon spent $3,161 per person in 2021 compared to $2,761 for Regina. Haubrich says some contributing factors could be that Saskatoon operates its own water treatment and wastewater treatment services while Regina contracts out a large portion of those services. Saskatoon runs a light and power utility and Regina does not. Saskatoon also operates its own land development operation and in terms of reporting expenses, Regina doesn’t include library FTE counts within their totals for Full Time Equivalent positions with the City. And, of course, Regina is smaller than Saskatoon.
The point, he says, is for the taxpayer to have information that allows them to ascertain context when it comes to City spending.
As well, Haubrich says they are calling on the Government of Saskatchewan to provide this information on municipalities to the public. He says by law municipalities are required to send their financial statements to the provincial government. The CTF Prairie Director points out that the provincial government did make the information available online until 2008, and said in 2019 they would do it again, but that hasn’t happened.
“The provincial government said it would help shine a light on municipal spending, but it hasn’t followed through,” Haubrich said. “Other provinces make it easy for taxpayers to access this basic information. It’s time for the Saskatchewan government to deliver on transparency.”
In 2021, the CTF released a report on municipal spending. The CTF was only able to obtain 35 per cent of the documents from the municipalities themselves. The CTF had to use freedom of information requests to obtain the financial statements for all 767 municipalities in 2020 and for 96 per cent of municipalities in 2021.
The CTF information shows that in 2021, the average per person spending among towns in Saskatchewan was $2,248. The top five town towns that spent the most in 2021 were Luseland, Lampman, Coronach, Kyle, and Blaine Lake. The five towns that spent the least were St. Brieux, Waldheim, Sturgis, Francis, and Rouleau.
Of the other cities in the province, Swift Current spent the most per person in 2021 at $3,741. Martensville spent the least per person at $1,794. The annual average per person spending of these cities was $2,635 in 2021.
The CTF’s database of municipal financial statements can be viewed here. The report analyzing per person spending can be found here.
