Federal restart funding was supposed to help the City of Moose Jaw and other municipalities to get out of the pandemic in 2021, but it has been causing frustration during budget deliberations. 

The city is receiving $2.182 million towards the operating budget in 2021 in a one-time payment. 

City administration has concerns that it will have to make up that funding in 2022 to prevent a major tax hike. 

“The number I punched into my calculator that maybe provides some perspective of our concern for 2022 that $2.182 million equates to a 7.4 per cent municipal tax increase,” Director of Financial Services Brian Acker. 

Administration feared that, in order to make up for the $2.182 million, they would have to cut from services in the 2022 budget. 

They did bring forward a recommendation that an annual contribution of $500,000 is transferred from the solid waste utility fund to the city’s operating fund on an ongoing basis to recognize increased maintenance on the city streets and lanes. 

The $500,000 annual contribution was referred to a planning session in 2021. 

However, it was also recommended that the 2021 transfer of funds goes towards reducing the amount of restart funding needed to cushion the blow in 2022. 

That idea was not well received by city council, as they wanted it to either go into the capital fund or help reduce utility rates and worry about how the pandemic is affecting residents right now. Ultimately, council did not move forward with the recommendation. 

When it came to the solid waste utility, city council did vote in favour of increasing the commercial tipping rates to $80 per tonne for city residents starting July 1 and $100 per tonne for non-locals. 

Coun. Dawn Luhning made the motion and explained why the increase would be delayed for city residents. 

“Only reason I threw in July 1 for the residents is because my thought is that we're going to be reviewing these over the next month, two months, three months as to where we're at,” she said.  

“And you know, I just thought if we give our residents a little bit of a break for a little while with the pandemic.” 

The new rates would put the city in line with other cities in the province and would help reduce the amount of waste from those travelling from out-of-town to dump their waste at a cheaper rate.