At the end of Day Two of budget deliberations, Saskatoon City Council has whittled the proposed property tax increases for 2026 and 2027 down to 6.43 and 5.75 per cent, respectively.

These figures are down from preliminary estimates of 8.23 and 5.95 per cent. The new numbers equate to paying an extra $12.66 per month in 2026 and $12.05 per month in 2027 for a median assessed property.

Council made it through 46 of 108 budget options that administration has prepared in an effort to save money. A mixture of cuts and savings have resulted in over $1 million in newfound funding so far. Some of the approved revisions include cutting City advertising in the Star Phoenix, terminating a subscription to a document management system, reducing property tax reminders to two letters per year, removing weight-based fee exemption for landfill loads under 150 kilograms, and increasing parking ticket fine amounts by $10 in 2026.

Other cuts included reducing the transfer to the Reserve for Capital Expenditures by $100,000. This was successful, despite being opposed by councilors MacDonald, Kelleher, Parker, and Mayor Block. Councilor Parker also opposed a freeze of interest earnings allocated to Utilities & Land, stating that “a lot of these things are coming after asset management in one way or another. I know we’ve made a couple of cuts to that already, and I’m just worried about a thousand cuts to asset management.” She and Councilor MacDonald opposed, but the savings of $100,000 were made.

However, Council did agree to save the annual Pancake Breakfast fundraiser for the United Way. Cutting it would have saved $13,500 and eliminated the fundraiser, something no council member moved to accomplish.

Councilors also drew the line at eliminating $400,000 in youth program funding and $8000 in funding for the Doors Open Heritage Event, among other items. Doors Open is held to promote awareness of heritage buildings by opening the buildings up to the public to visit.

The process will continue throughout the day Thursday.