Finance Committee Decisions in Brief

From the January 30, 2017 Meeting

6.1.1 Ken Cheveldayoff, Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport – Meewasin Valley Authority Funding

Decision

*The Committee received the letter as information.

Background

*The letter is a response to James K. Wood, President of the SOS Elms Coalition.
*In the letter, Minister Cheveldayoff says the Government of Saskatchewan recognizes that urban parks contribute to a high quality of life and that since 2008, Meewasin has received $8,210,362 in funding.
*The letter states a review of Meewasin Valley Authority is being conducted and will help inform future decisions.

7.2.3 Overview of the 2017 Assessment Roll

Decision

*The Committee received the report as information and will be forwarding it to City Council as information.  A Power Point presentation was provided to the Committee and the Administration will be providing the Power Point to City Council as well. 
*The Committee also asked the Administration to report back on:  a) The ability to coordinate distribution of Property Tax Notices with the distribution of Assessment Notices, for the sake of clarity; and b) A communication plan for the next assessment period, to address the concerns raised by citizens and Councillors this year.

Background

*A property reassessment recalculates property assessment values to a more current valuation date.
*The Province of Saskatchewan made a change to the residential and multi-unit residential percentage of value to be applied to assessed values. This change does not result in individual properties paying more, nor does the City of Saskatoon receive any additional tax revenue.
*Generally speaking, the 2017 assessed values have not increased in value as much as they did in 2013 with the last reassessment.

7.2.6 S&P Global’s Canadian Ratings – City of Saskatoon

Decision

*The committee received the report and is forwarding it to City Council for information.

Background

*The report informs City Council and the general public of the 2015 long-term issuer credit rating report recently prepared and released by S&P Global (formerly Standard & Poor’s Rating Services) reaffirming the City’s “AAA”/Stable outlook credit rating, as well as some of the key rating factors.
*S&P Global has reaffirmed the City’s “AAA”/Stable outlook credit rating based on the 2015 Consolidated Financial Statements and current economic outlook.
*The City compares favourably to the key factors used by S&P to evaluate the City’s credit rating.