Saskatoon faces 9.9 and 7.34 per cent property tax increases in financial forecast

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If the City of Saskatoon makes no changes to the current financial forecast, residents will face a 9.9 per cent property tax increase in 2026 and a 7.34 per cent in 2027.

Those hikes in the preliminary 2026-27 financial forecast are part of a report being presented to the governance and priorities committee on June 11, pointing to several areas where the city sees increased costs due to inflation.

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Chief financial officer Clae Hack said the city over the years has worked to find efficiencies and value for taxpayer dollars, and that they don’t anticipate the numbers increase to be this high by November.

“These efforts are highlighted in the annual report on service, savings and sustainability, which has highlighted tens of millions of dollars of initiatives that result in savings and cost avoidances over the past decade and $5.4 million in 2024 alone,” Hack said.

The report to committee compares property taxes for single-family homes across several cities in Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and Manitoba. It shows that Saskatoon — sitting at $2,618 — is lower than all the cities listed except for Winnipeg, and is lower than the group average of $3,178.

Looking at general city expenditures, police account for 21.95 per cent of those costs, transportation 16.25 per cent, corporate support 10.35 per cent, transit 9.85 per cent, and fire 9.78 per cent.

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Despite increased investments in things like fire services and transportation, Hack said the city hasn’t been able to keep pace with inflation.

“This means, despite record investments in 2025, this investment can buy less fire apparatus, equipment and hire less firefighters than it could in 2022.”

He said non-property tax revenues aren’t able to meet inflation and population growth estimates, and that the city is becoming increasingly reliant on property taxes.

“Since 2022, despite collecting nearly 19 per cent more property tax revenue, we’ve also begun to see the value of this revenue decline as it has not kept pace with inflation or population growth in recent years,” he said.

Hack broke down the forecasted increase into four areas; phase-ins and previous direction from city council, civic operating expenditures to maintain existing services, civic operating revenue estimates, and Saskatoon Police Service estimates.

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Phase-ins include the Link Bus system, the East Leisure Centre and fire stations No. 10 and 11. These projects came in at a combined cost of $4,299,200 in 2026 and $6,359,600 in 2027.

Additional previous direction from city council, including investments into snow and ice removal, paved roadways and fire apparatus, is costing the city an additional $3,215,400 in 2026 and $3,195,400 in 2027.

Hack said phase-ins and previous direction from council account for 1.48 per cent of the expenditure increase in 2026, and 1.77 per cent in 2027.

He said asphalt has had a cumulative cost increase of 38.3 per cent since 2021. Cement was 27.9 per cent higher, buses 22.7 per cent higher, and logs and pulpwood 26.6 per cent higher.

As a result, the city faces 2.79 per cent and 2.96 per cent inflationary increases in its 2026 and 2027 forecast, which equals roughly $14.2 million and $15.9 million in the two years.

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Hack said the city expects to see more civic operating revenue, with a 3.49 per cent increase in 2026 and 4.07 per cent in 2027. He pointed to increases in municipal revenue sharing, more franchise fees, grants in lieu and return on investments from city utilities, and increases to transit revenue as reasons for the revenue increase.

Looking at the forecasted 9.9 per cent and 7.34 per cent property tax increases, Hack divided them up, showing that phase-ins and previous direction accounted for 2.27 per cent of the increase in 2026 and 2.21 per cent in 2027. The civic budget accounted for 3.54 per cent of the increase in 2026 and 2.61 per cent in 2027, and the police budget accounted for 4.09 per cent of the 2026 increase and 2.52 per cent in 2027.

He noted that police have a different structure, being governed by the board of police commissioners rather than city council directly. Additional costs forecasted by police are listed as requirements from collective bargaining agreements, as well as additional resources for staff, capital, materials and supplies.

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Hack stressed that this was not the city’s final budget, and that they aim to see a minimum one per cent reduction before budget deliberations, with additional scenarios of one or two per cent reductions to property taxes.

“There’s definitely no silver bullet,” Hack said. “There’s not going to be one easy decision that doesn’t impact anybody across the city, so it’s going to be a combination of various things, potentially changes to our revenues, increasing rates, changes to our service levels.

“Nobody would like a zero per cent property tax increase more than I would.”

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