By Jeff Labine

City in “crisis mode” following provincial budget

Mar 28, 2017 | 12:00 PM

Prince Albert city council isn’t going to take a $2.5 million hit without a fight.

During Monday night’s meeting, council passed a number of motions as an 11th hour move to address the multiple cuts and reductions to funding the city is faced with following the provincial budget. One item in the motion looked at taxing Crown owned land and corporations.

This move was in response to the SaskParty eliminating the grants in lieu of taxes from SaskPower and SaskEnergy. Cutting the grants means the city is losing $2.5 million this year and possibly more than $3 million next year.

The move caught many municipalities by surprise and Ward 4 Coun. Don Cody called the budget a “devastating blow” to the city.

“Now that they have taken away the grants in lieu or $2.5 million, I think we need to start charging them so we can get some of our money back,” he told council. “Now we’re asked to take another $2.5 million and find it. Where are we supposed to find it? There’s only one place to get it – that’s the taxpayers.”

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Cody warned Prince Albert taxpayers could pay as much as eight per cent if the city decided to make up the money that way, which he called unfair. He believed council wasn’t going to go down that route but would instead look at ways to cut spending or take possible legal action.

The city’s main focus will be on properties run by SaskPower and SaskEnergy. Cody said he wants the administration to calculate how much it costs to provide city services to those properties.

Ward 8 Coun. Ted Zurakowski said the city is in “crisis mode” because of the budget.

“We are in trouble,” he said. “We need to get that message out to our residents. We’re in a very serious situation and we need to discuss what our options are.”

Zurakowski welcomed a hiring and spending freeze at the city until the budget committee can meet to discuss options. The freezes are at the discretion of the city manager, hiring when deemed necessary.

Mayor Greg Dionne voiced his frustration with what he called “fear mongering” and said council shouldn’t overreact at this time

“We’re panicking,” he added. “I’m not going to do that. I believe we have a very good council here, very good staff and we have a very good city manager, I believe the best in the province, and I’m not going to interfere with him doing business. If he thinks we need that person, I agree with that.”

Council is hoping to have options figured out before tax slips are sent out to residents by the end of April.

Jeff.labine@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @labinereporter