The Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce commends City Council’s efforts over the past several months to address the $70 million budget shortfall, but CEO Jason Aebig believes a different process would have had better results for taxpayers. He notes that 6.04 per cent is better than the starting point of a potential 17.33 per cent tax increase announced in June, but suggests that rather than all of the budget decisions being made by Council, they should have given Administration their property tax rate goal. For example, the Chamber’s hope was to get the tax rate down at least to the 20 year average which is about four per cent, so the idea would be to give Administration the four per cent increase target.
Aebig says, “Put the target back into the hands of the City’s managers and directors and have them come back with a plan to deliver core services and programs within that target.”

He also questions why at the end of the budget deliberations Council went through it again and brought back some expenses to the tune of $1.2 million. The Chamber would also like to have seen job cuts on the management side rather than front line workers.

However, The Chamber was pleased to see investment in police. Aebig says community safety is the highest priority for businesses and for residents.