Saskatoon Minute: Issue 112

Saskatoon Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Saskatoon politics

📅 This Week In Saskatoon: 📅

• On Tuesday, the Development Appeals Board will meet at 4:00 pm at City Hall. Among the items on the agenda are two appeals filed by Macro Properties challenging permit denials for commercial parking lot developments at 330 2nd Avenue South and 274 2nd Avenue South - two adjacent downtown properties. At 330 2nd Avenue South, the City denied the permit on the grounds that parking stalls are 0.142 metres shorter than the required 6.0 metres, the drive aisle is 0.12 metres too narrow, a pre-existing power pole obstructs two stalls, and the front landscaping strip falls 2 metres short of the required 3 metres. At 274 2nd Avenue South, the City denied the permit because stalls are 0.5 metres short, the drive aisle is 1.17 metres narrower than required, and landscaping deficiencies exist along both the front and side yards. In both cases, Macro argues the deficiencies arise from the constraints of existing developed sites - not from overdevelopment - and that the variances are minor enough that safety and functionality remain unimpaired. The board will determine whether the permit denials should stand.
  
  
• At her State of the City address, Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block framed her approach as “moving boldly,” focusing on downtown development, homelessness, and municipal funding challenges. She emphasized the Downtown Event and Entertainment District (DEED) as a necessary economic driver, arguing it is not optional because the City is already losing business opportunities tied to facilities like SaskTel Centre. Block pointed to past controversial infrastructure projects, such as Midtown Plaza and TCU Place, as examples of investments that ultimately strengthened the city and attracted private development. On homelessness, she reported 1,931 people counted in the most recent point-in-time survey, a 30% increase from the previous year, calling the situation unsustainable and stressing that interim housing with wraparound supports is the most effective response. She also argued that cities are structurally underfunded, managing most infrastructure while receiving a small share of tax revenue, and suggested municipalities may eventually need access to income tax or a revised funding model. Block added that reliance on property taxes and assessment cycles creates volatility, and called for a broader “new deal” on how cities are financed.
  
  
• Saskatoon's downtown arena project remains without confirmed funding or a construction timeline, eight years after City Council first voted to build. The $1.2-billion Downtown Event and Entertainment District - which would include a new arena and an expanded TCU Place convention centre - hit another stumbling block in March when Council rejected a proposed private partnership for arena operations, reversing a three-year plan to pursue private sector involvement. Speaking after Mayor Block's State of the City address on Thursday, Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce CEO Jason Aebig warned that Saskatoon is falling behind other cities. "They're eating our lunch now, if you don't know that," Aebig said. Block maintained that the City's funding plan is "still solid," pointing to a proposed cost-sharing arrangement among the federal and provincial governments and the City, with the City's share to be raised through incremental tax increases from development near the district and revenues generated by the arena and convention centre. City officials are currently reviewing the plan's feasibility, and the City and Province are in talks with the federal government about a more flexible infrastructure funding program.
  
  
• Primary care nurses at the Saskatoon Community Clinic on 20th Street are requesting knee pads - a detail that Toby Esterby, the clinic's Chief Operations Officer, used this week to illustrate the pace at which overdose calls have mounted. Esterby told the Governance and Priorities Committee on Wednesday that the clinic has responded to hundreds of overdoses this year, with the number growing each of the past two years, and that nurses are kneeling so frequently during overdose response that knee protection has become a practical need. Private security in the Avenue C area of Riversdale encountered approximately 300 unhoused people per day in January and are now seeing roughly 1,000 per day. Esterby described Saskatoon as "ground zero" for what is occurring in urban Canada, attributing the strain in part to population growth of more than 50,000 over five years - equivalent, he noted, to adding the entire population of Prince Albert. 
  
  
• Saskatoon's construction season is underway, and the City's Director of Construction and Design Matt Jurkiewicz says crews will be "everywhere throughout the summer." Many of this year's projects are interdependent, Jurkiewicz noted, urging drivers to monitor the City's daily road reports to stay ahead of closures and detours. Among the major active projects are at least nine water main replacements between Idylwyld Drive and Cumberland Avenue in the Nutana and Varsity View neighbourhoods; primary water main work at the Acadia Reservoir, which is nearing completion; Highway 7 connector improvements between 22nd Street and the CPKC rail line; land servicing on University land to support future infill development; water and sewer installation in the Marquis Industrial area and along the Meewasin Valley trail near Silverwood Heights; phased detours on Wanuskewin Road between Highway 11 and Arthur Rose Avenue; and a new dry storm pond in Meadowgreen's Cahill Park intended to reduce local flooding. Jurkiewicz also cautioned that drivers entering active work zones remain a hazard.

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