News Releases

Residential street sweeping starts on Monday, May 7 for up to seven weeks through 56 neighbourhoods. In addition to positing bright yellow No Parking signs ahead of sweeping, the City is inviting people to search their sweep day by address to plan ahead.

“It’s really important for people to move their vehicles by 7 a.m. on their sweeping day so we can properly sweep the area,” says Brandon Harris, Director of Roadways & Operations. “This new search function is designed to make it easy for people to plan ahead and avoid parking on a street scheduled for sweeping.”

After a successful pilot project in 2017, priority streets through neighbourhoods with high on-street parking were fully swept in April, leaving these areas free for parking when the surrounding streets are scheduled. 

“There are fewer vehicles relocated each year as people become familiar with the signs and we can offer alternative streets for parking,” says Harris. “Even so, too many people are ignoring the No Parking signs and the last thing we want to have to do is ticket and tow residents so we can do a good job.”   

In order to sweep streets from curb to curb, vehicles left on the street are relocated to a nearby location, which may be outside of their neighbourhood or on a previously swept street. The driver then has to locate their vehicle and pay a $100 parking violation.

If your vehicle is relocated, you can use the Find My Vehicle! search function or contact the 24-hour customer service centre at 306-975-2476.

Search your sweep day and find other information about street sweeping at saskatoon.ca/sweeping. Street Sweeping Service Alerts will be issued if there is a change to the residential sweeping schedule.

As of January 1, 2018, China, which buys approximately two-thirds of North America's recyclables, set new standards which prohibit the importation of recovered paper bales that are overly contaminated with plastic film (stretchy plastics such as bags and wrap).

The resulting decrease in market options and increased demand for higher quality recyclable materials means that Saskatoon’s recyclers cannot sell all the material that they are collecting and are instead stockpiling a substantial portion.

“Soft stretchable plastics too easily end up in bales of paper and cardboard which is the cause of the contamination that will no longer meet China’s standards.” says Brenda Wallace, Director of Environmental and Corporate Initiatives. “By eliminating plastic film from our recycling program we are able to ensure our other materials, such as paper and cardboard – which make up 76 per cent of our recyclable materials – are still meeting global standards and can continue to be recycled.”

To help explain the new change to the program, a communications campaign launched April 30, 2018.  It promotes tips for reducing the use of plastic film while encouraging the use of reusable products such as cloth bags, and hard plastic and glass containers.

With the recognition plastic film can’t be avoided sometimes, the campaign also promotes some helpful tips for re-using bags and film to keep it from being a one-time use item.

The recycling campaign supports the Strategic Goal of Environmental Leadership and the City’s target of diverting 70% of waste by 2023.

For more City of Saskatoon Public Service Announcements, News Releases, Traffic Detours and Service Alerts, visit www.saskatoon.ca or connect with the City of Saskatoon on Twitter and Facebook.

• 2017 - The SASF program was featured as an international case study by the Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP)
• 2017 - St. Volodymyr School’s participating grade 7/8 class received the Rob Dumont Energy Management Education Award
• 2016 - St. Anne School’s participating grade 8 class received the Rob Dumont Energy Management Youth Award
• 2013 - The SASF program received a Regional Centre for Expertise Award for Education for Sustainable Development
• 2013 - The SASF program received the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council Waste Minimization Award for Youth/Schools

Warm weather has arrived after a long winter and is now causing ice on the City’s lakes and ponds to deteriorate or rot. The Saskatoon Fire Department now asks people to stay off the ice since it may be unstable.

Assistant Chief Wayne Rodger says Saskatoon Fire Department staff have evaluated the ice conditions and have determined the ponds are no longer safe for recreational use.

“The degradation we’re observing along the shoreline could make access treacherous,” Rodger says.  “Once the ice starts to deteriorate -- as it has this year -- the thickness of the ice is no longer an indication of its strength.”

He says with warmer temperatures, several different factors come into play to make the ice unstable:

• When the snow cover melts, the sunlight and solar radiation travels through clear ice and is absorbed by the water below causing it to warm.  Through this process the ice melts from the bottom up. The solar radiation causes ice crystals to deteriorate dramatically weakening the ice.  Because this happens from the bottom up, even ice that appears stable may not be safe.

• When water pools on top of the ice, perhaps from the melting snow cover, it will be warmer than the ice and again allow solar radiation to travel through the ice causing it to melt faster.

• When water is moving above or below the ice surface, such as the inflows to our storm retention ponds from attached to storm sewers, ice will weaken. In the same way, river currents constantly affect the quality of the ice on the river making it unstable and dangerous for use.

The Saskatoon Fire Department again reminds residents to never go on the river ice and asks them to stay off the ice on the city’s lakes and ponds for the remainder of the 2018 season.

The City wants to warn residents about a phone scam involving someone pretending to be from City Utility Collections.

The City has received phone calls and e-mails from concerned customers.  The customers report they have all received the same phone call with someone making a claim their utility bill is overdue and their service will be disconnected.

The calls appear to be coming from a 1-800 number. Although the City has a 1-800 utilities customer service number, the City does not call customers from that number.

The City only disconnects service after the customer receives a written notice and if accounts are not kept current

Do not give credit card numbers or other banking information over the phone if contacted this way.

To confirm the identity of a City of Saskatoon Utility Collections employee, please call Utility Collections in Revenue Division by calling 306-975-2405 or 1-800-667-9944.

Anyone who receives a suspicious call of this nature is encouraged to attend to the Saskatoon Police Service (located at 76 – 25^th St E) and speak with an officer to leave a report.