Saskatoon Minute: Issue 130

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

📅 This Week In Saskatoon: 📅

• Ward 10 Councillor Zach Jeffries will ask Council on Wednesday to have Administration report back on ways to fast track development reviews, one of three notices of motion on the agenda when Council meets at 9:30 am. His motion names three categories for faster treatment: projects that meet a certain dollar investment threshold, projects that help meet the City's strategic goals for affordable or supportive housing, and projects where the proponent is willing to pay a larger fee for faster service. Jeffries also asks Administration to spell out what that would mean for the review of every other project, and what additional resources it would require. The motion asks only for options, so nothing changes at the planning counter unless and until Council acts on the report that comes back. Jeffries has a second motion on the same agenda, seeking details on how the City makes planning and coordination decisions for traffic restrictions and roadwork, and how 2027 planning will be improved on the lessons of the 2026 construction season.
  
  
• Ward 9 Councillor Bev Dubois is bringing a motion to the same 9:30 am meeting, asking Administration to report back on an updated right-of-way permit process and fee structure for large containers stored on city streets. Dubois gave notice of the motion at Council's August 26th meeting, arguing that the City's fee structure for storing large containers on the right-of-way has not been updated for many years, and that some residents and contractors abuse the privilege by leaving containers on city streets for extended periods. The motion directs the report to focus on the on-street container portion of the bylaw, and invites Administration to propose modernization in any other areas it sees fit. No dollar figures are attached to the motion, and it does not say how far permit fees would rise. Like the development review motion, it asks only for a report, so any new fee would come back to Council as a separate decision.
  
  
• Council will also decide on Wednesday whether to approve a three-year collective agreement with the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 80, covering January 1st, 2024 to December 31st, 2026, a contract that expires roughly three months after the vote to ratify it. The agreement carries four wage increases: 2.25% on January 1st, 2024, a further 2.25% on July 1st, 2024, 4.5% on July 1st, 2025, and 3% on January 1st, 2026. Negotiations began on October 21st, 2025, the two sides reached a tentative agreement on August 6th, 2026, and the union membership ratified it on August 25th. Other changes include a shift differential for fire dispatchers rising from $0.50 to $1.00 an hour for overnight work, a new Fire Investigator classification separate from Fire Inspector, and an arrangement under which the union will no longer have to cover replacement staffing for up to 40 shifts a year of City-paid union leave. Administration's report puts no dollar cost on the settlement, saying only that it falls within the financial mandate Council set, reflects contract settlements at comparable fire services, and is generally consistent with the City's staffing budget assumptions for 2026 and 2027. 
  
  
• Away from City Hall, a standalone referendum on Saskatoon's proposed $1.2-billion Downtown Event and Entertainment District could cost the City $1 million or more, according to a statement from city hall. The 2024 civic election cost $1.2 million, but half of that was paid by the school divisions, which ran their elections at the same time, and a referendum would not be cost-shared. A group is collecting signatures on a petition to end all City Hall activity related to the district, and needs 26,615 names within a 90-day window to force a vote under provincial law, a threshold set at 10% of the city's 2021 census population of 266,141. Mayor Cynthia Block questioned whether the question being put to signers is clearly communicating what its backers intend, and City Hall has noted that Council can go to court to seek a modified question. Saskatoon's last standalone referendum was in 1986, on the arena now called SaskTel Centre, and cost $82,000, or nearly $211,000 in today's dollars.
  
  
• Starting in October, the City will run an online survey on the ratio that determines how much of the property tax bill is carried by homeowners and how much by commercial and other non-residential properties. Saskatoon's ratio is 1.71, meaning the owner of a non-residential property pays $1.71 in tax for every dollar paid on a residential property of the same assessed value. Under that split, homeowners will pay more than two-thirds of the $356.8 million in property tax the City collects this year, with non-residential properties covering just under a third. Ward 5 Councillor Randy Donauer asked for the engagement because the ratio keeps surfacing during budget talks, and he expects that neither side will be completely happy with wherever Council lands. 

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