Sask. municipalities bemoan steep budget cuts

REGINA — The head of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association says some communities are facing a dire financial situation because of provincial budget cuts.

President Gordon Barnhart said the province has eliminated about $36 million in funding from more than 100 municipalities and many will need to increase property taxes to stay in the black.

“We expected last week’s provincial budget to be tough, but nothing prepared us for the crisis some of our members now face,” Barnhart said Tuesday.

The province is cutting all funding to libraries in Regina and Saskatoon and more than half of all funding to regional libraries.

It’s also eliminating grants in lieu — money that the province gave to cities instead of paying property tax on government buildings or infrastructure.

The City of Saskatoon said Sunday that it’s considering legal action, including a court injunction, to stop the province from pulling the grants.

Premier Brad Wall said in a Facebook post Monday that the province thinks it’s fair for communities to use some of their reserves or reconsider spending, rather than pursue an injunction or increase local taxes.

But the urban municipalities association said cutting services in Saskatoon to fill a $10.6-million shortfall could eliminate all the city’s leisure programs for a year. In Regina, the $10.6-million cut is equivalent to the city’s annual budget for park maintenance, it said.

Barnhart said Wall’s suggestion that towns and cities should use their reserves to make up the difference is outrageous.

“Many communities do not have large reserves,” Barnhart said.

“Besides, reserve funds are usually a contingency plan for snow-removal emergencies, major watermain breaks and other unexpected catastrophic infrastructure needs — not for last-minute, permanent cuts by the province.”

The Saskatchewan government is trying to tackle a $1.3-billion deficit, resulting largely from a big drop in revenue from oil and gas, potash and uranium. The budget released last week outlines a plan to get the deficit down to $685 million in the year ahead.

Wall said in the legislature Tuesday that Saskatoon will get $46 million this year in revenue sharing from the provincial government.

“We’ve asked them to share in the challenge of the budget in terms of grants in lieu. They’ll all be still net to the positive,” he said.

Barnhart said SUMA is working with Saskatoon and has lawyers looking at whether legal action is a possibility.

“We’re having a look at it to see: Is it feasible, is it going to be a logical thing to do?”

It also hasn’t been decided whether SUMA would pursue legal action on behalf of all its members, not just the City of Saskatoon, Barnhart said.