SASKATOON, SK: The city of Saskatoon paid consultants $119,490 to report on new taxes that could be used to pay for the proposed downtown arena, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“The city shouldn’t be using taxpayers’ dollars to research how to take more money out of taxpayers’ pockets,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “Mayor Charlie Clark should save money, not waste a bunch of money hiring consultants to dream up new taxes.”

The city spent $119,490 hiring KPMG to report on new taxes that could be imposed to pay for the arena, according to documents obtained by the CTF through a freedom-of-information request.

Five potential measures are included in the report. The city is choosing to conduct further analysis on three. They are a hotel tax, a ticket tax and having the city take out loans to pay for the arena. 

The city of Saskatoon projects a deficit of $22 million in 2024 and $19 million in 2025. If the city can’t find other ways to save money, this would result in an eight per cent property tax increase in 2024 and a six per cent increase in 2025.

The new stadium is expected to cost more than $500 million.

“Shovels haven’t hit the ground and taxpayers are already in the hole for this project,” Haubrich said. “The city needs to stop the frivolous spending on this arena and find savings, not bring in new taxes.”