Saskatoon city council bumps up fees for green cart program

Day 2 of budget talks From CTV Saskatoon's Francois Biber: City Council has trimmed property tax hikes for the next two years.

SASKATOON -- Green cart subscribers in Saskatoon can expect to pay more for the yard and food waste collection service in 2020 and 2021.

The city’s administration recommended raising the price of the collection program to $65, from $55 currently, for residents who subscribe before April 30 each year.

Any new subscriptions or renewals after April 30 will  cost $85 fee, up from $75.

Council voted in favour of the recommendation during its second day of budget deliberations on Tuesday.

Councillor Bev Dubois made a motion to move some money from the expenditure side of the environmental budget to try and offset the dedicated tax levy for the citywide organics program. Earlier this year, council voted in favour of a moderate funding phase-in plan for the citywide organics program, slated to roll out in 2023.

That plan called for one per cent mill rate increases in 2020, 2021, 2022 and a 0.93 per cent mill rate increase in 2023, the first year the organics program would be available. City council also debated whether or not they move to a slower implementation for the organics program to 2026.

That motion was defeated and council opted to stay the course for a 2023 rollout. .

In the city’s environmental budget, a dedicated one per cent tax in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 0.93 per cent tax in 2023 will be allocated to building a base funding level for a curbside organics program set to be rolled out and operating in 2023.

City administration is also recommending council tap into $10 million in gas tax revenues to lessen the dedicated taxpayer levy from one per cent to 0.87 per cent in 2020 and 0.78 per cent in 2021.

The $10 million would be used to purchase bins for the curbside organics program.

Council still needs to approve the $10 million expenditure for purchasing bins for the program.

CORRECTION -- A previous version of this story misstated the changes in cost coming to the city's green cart program.