News Releases

We are constantly reassessing developments to ensure the safety and well-being of staff and citizens and how the City delivers public services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 Property Tax

The City is committed to providing increased flexibility and immediate short-term relief for your 2020 Property Tax payment.  On your notice, your 2020 Property Tax due date will still show as June 30, 2020.

However:

• The City is extending a three-month grace period to provide you with additional time to pay your 2020 Property Tax.
• You will not incur any late payment penalties on your 2020 Property Tax if you pay the full amount due by September 30, 2020.

TIPPS Customers

• If you are a TIPPS customer currently paying your 2020 Property Tax over 12-equal monthly installments, you may request to be removed from TIPPS at any time should you require immediate, short-term financial relief without incurring a penalty. Your full property tax amount will then be due by September 30, 2020. 

To cancel your participation in TIPPS:  Please contact us via email with your property roll#, address and ownership name and your request to be removed from TIPPS.

We would like to answer your property tax-related questions; we understand and will work with you. If you have further property tax-related questions, our Corporate Revenue Customer Service Representatives can assist you at 306-975-2400. 

Utility Services & Payments

The City will continue to bill for utility services as normal. However, to best serve customers in these extraordinary times, the City has made the following changes to current utility collections activities:

1. Utility disconnections due to arrears will be suspended until September 30, 2020;
2. Late payment charges will be suspended on all utility accounts until September 30, 2020; and
3. We will continue to generate utility bill reminders and other related notices for customers who are in arrears to keep them informed of their current situation.

These measures are aimed at providing financial relief for customers who may not be able to afford to pay their bills on time.  By suspending late payment charges, utility customers will have the option to delay bill payments without putting themselves in additional financial hardship. 

City staff will continue to work with utility customers about payment arrangements, so customers are not left in a difficult future financial situation. Delaying disconnections will help ensure that all homes have access to water, allowing for proper hand-washing and personal hygiene.
Have other utility-related questions? Please call our Revenue Customer Service Representatives at 306-975-2400. We understand and will work with you.

Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo

The Zoo will remain closed until further notice. During this closure, the Zoo Keepers will be on-site to ensure the health of our animals.

The park remains open, but the play structure is closed. Visitors must maintain a safe, two-metre (six feet) physical distance away from others in the park. Consider outings by yourself or with just one other person at the appropriate distance.

As a CAZA accredited Zoo, the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo will be reviewing all funding support options.

Updates will continue to be provided at saskatoon.ca/covid-19

We are constantly reassessing pandemic developments to ensure the safety and well-being of staff and citizens. We have also continued to reassess the way we deliver public services following the decision to close City Hall and civic facilities.

“We have made the difficult decision to lay off a number of casual staff,” says City Manager Jeff Jorgenson. “Going forward there will be no scheduled hours. From our perspective, layoffs are an important step to enable staff, without any scheduled hours, the ability to access options such as employment insurance benefits as soon as possible.

“It gives the people affected some certainty as opposed to waiting indefinitely for us to be able to return to normal operations.”

Casual staff refers to employees whose hours are typically scheduled on a weekly to monthly basis, based on work need. Examples include lifeguards, cashier-receptionists, activity leaders and recreation technicians.

“For permanent staff, we are not looking at significant layoffs in the coming weeks.”

Jorgenson says citizens need City work to continue in the core services.

“Our people matter, and we must be financially responsible, especially now as many citizens and businesses are hurting and are directly affected by the pandemic.”

Jorgenson says the City’s approach is to continue with strategies that are, and will, keep the economy and as many services going as possible so that when we start returning to a more normal operating environment, the City is as far ahead as it possibly can be.

“Re-starting our economy on the other side of this pandemic will be paramount, and the City will play a major role in the coming months,” he says.

Residents asked to use Transit for essential travel only

To increase social distancing measures, Transit riders are asked to use the bus service only for essential travel.

When possible, those in a wheelchair are asked to use the rear facing wheelchair station and to buckle themselves in to ensure social distance from operators.

These changes are in addition to transit service reductions and the closure of many public facilities including schools.

Details on Transit’s reduced schedule can be found on Saskatoon Transit’s homepage.

Household Glass Program with SARCAN Temporarily Suspended 

SARCAN has made the decision to close locations across Saskatchewan indefinitely. This means the Household Glass Program will be suspend until locations re-open. During this time, residents are asked to avoid overfilling their Blue Cart/Bin and to hang on to their clean and dry recyclables until their next collection day.

Gordon Howe Campground Delays Opening

The City will temporarily suspend all visitor services at Gordon Howe Campground and will stop taking new reservations until May 1, 2020. The campground reopening will be subject to an assessment of the COVID-19 status. Further updates will be provided as they become available.

Building Permit Inspections

Building Permit Inspections have resumed and are now available, along with Plumbing Permit Inspections, via FaceTime and Skype video calls.

AMI Water Meters
Meter upgrade appointments are suspended until further notice. Learn more about the project at www.saskatoon.ca/watermeter.    

2020 Property Tax Financial Relief & Flexibility - Update
For citizens experiencing the effects of the economic impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City is committed to providing increased flexibility and immediate short-term relief for your 2020 Property Tax payment.

The City is extending a three-month grace period to provide additional time to pay your 2020 Property Tax. You will not incur any late payment penalties on your 2020 Property Tax if you pay the full amount due by September 30, 2020.

Also, for TIPPS customers currently paying their 2020 Property Tax over 12-equal monthly installments, you may request to be removed from TIPPS at any time should you require immediate, short-term financial relief without incurring a penalty. Your full property tax amount will then be due September 30, 2020.

Updates will continue to be provided at saskatoon.ca/covid-19 and at saskatoonpolice.ca

As the City of Saskatoon continues to keep up to date on the COVID-19 pandemic, City leaders have made the decision to close leisure facilities effective Monday, March 16.

“This was a difficult decision to make,” says Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Director of the Emergency Management Organization. “We want to remind everyone there is no evidence of community transmission.”

“We want to make sure we can maintain essential services and one of the ways we can do this is to limit non-essential contacts in the community, including for our staff,” Goulden-McLeod says.

Affected leisure facilities and co-located libraries

Until further notice, the following leisure facilities will close tomorrow:

•    Leisure Centres

o    Cosmo Civic Centre (and Caryle King Public Library)

o    Harry Bailey Aquatic Centre

o    Lakewood Civic Centre (Cliff Wright Public Library)

o    Lawson Civic Centre (Rusty MacDonald Public Library)

o    Saskatoon Field House

o    Shaw Centre

•    Indoor Rinks

o    ACT Arena

o    Archibald Arena

o    Cosmo Arena

o    Gordie Howe Kinsmen Arena

o    Lions Arena

•    Outdoor Rink Buildings (Warm-up Shacks)
•    Golf Courses (for pre-season sales)

o    Holiday Park Golf Course

o    Silverwood Golf Course

o    Wildwood Golf Course

•    Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo

In collaboration with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, we are actively monitoring the situation and will continue to evaluate when the facilities may reopen.

The City will be determining how to compensate all those affected by leisure facility closures and those details will be provided soon.

If outside organizations have identified these facilities for evacuation centres they will no longer be available until further notice.

City proceeds with Spring/Summer 2020 program registration

Program registration for Spring/Summer 2020 (April 1 to August 31, 2020) will continue as planned. Registration begins tonight, Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. by calling 306-975-2800 or by logging into leisureonline.saskatoon.ca. Walk-in registrations will not take place at the Leisure Centres due to facility closures.

Communicating with City staff

Saskatoon EMO has also helped coordinate internal messages for City employees who may have questions about how the pandemic response may change their workplace.

Online self-assessment

The City is also making available the Health Ministry's tool to guide citizens on how to continue with daily life and whether they need to be tested for COVID-19.

Goulden-McLeod says people should continue with their daily routines, but they should pay attention to personal hygiene and appropriate social distancing.

On this point, City Manager Jeff Jorgenson, who is out of the country on vacation, will lead by example and self-isolate for 14 days when he returns.  While he has no symptoms, he will follow the recommendations of the Chief Medical Health Officer as he does not want to jeopardize the health of City staff or the public.

Four new presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of cases in the province to six.  None of the new cases is in Saskatoon. 

The provincial health ministry encourages everyone to be mindful of good hand hygiene, cough etiquette and social distancing. For those who have risk factors such as old age, or underlying health issues, medical experts encourage those people to stay away from crowded areas.

Updates will continue to be provided at saskatoon.ca/covid-19. 

To help share reliable and accurate information for our community, the City has created a webpage dedicated to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) information.

“Everyone can find facts on how to protect yourself and family from COVID-19, answers to the questions we’re being asked the most, news releases and links to trusted health-related information,” says Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Director of Emergency Management.

In terms of action, the City has activated its Emergency Operations Centre to coordinate its planning efforts.

Since January, the City has been monitoring and actively engaged in assessing the impact of COVID-19 and continues to be in close contact with provincial and federal health agencies.

 “Our top priorities are protecting the health, safety, plus overall well-being of everyone in our community – as well as maintaining essential services to our citizens,” Goulden-McLeod says.

Goulden-McLeod reminds everyone it is important to keep up to date with the current risk level in Saskatchewan.

“This needs to be a team effort – responding most effectively will take a whole community approach,” she says. “Every group, business and person can play a role to help keep us all healthy and safe. This will not come down to be one organization’s or one person’s job to solve.”

As it becomes available in a rapidly changing environment, the City will continue to provide more information on the webpage and through social media platforms.