REGINA, SK: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is unveiling a comprehensive website providing financial statements for Saskatchewan municipalities. The provincial government has failed to publish municipal financial statements after years of promises.

“Taxpayers pay the bills and we deserve to know how municipal politicians spend our money,” said Gage Haubrich, Prairie Director of the CTF. “Publishing financial statements for municipalities should be transparency 101.”

Today, the CTF released a report detailing municipal spending and an online database where taxpayers can view and compare municipal financial statements. Taxpayers can now access these financial statements through the CTF’s online database [LINK].

For Saskatchewan’s two largest cities, Saskatoon spent $3,161 per person in 2021 compared to $2,761 for Regina.

Municipalities are required by law to send their financial statements to the provincial government. In 2008, the government of Saskatchewan stopped proactively publishing these statements online. In 2019, the government expected to have a new system in place by 2021, but it hasn’t happened.

Provincial governments in Alberta and Ontario have web portals where taxpayers can access municipal financial statements.

“The provincial government said it would help shine a light on municipal spending, but it hasn’t followed through,” Haubrich said. “Other provinces make it easy for taxpayers to access this basic information. It’s time for the Saskatchewan government to deliver on transparency.”

In 2021, the CTF released a report on municipal spending. The CTF was only able to obtain 35 per cent of the documents from the municipalities themselves. The CTF had to use freedom of information requests to obtain the financial statements for all 767 municipalities in 2020 and for 96 per cent of municipalities in 2021.

The CTF’s database of municipal financial statements can be viewed here. The report analyzing per person spending can be found here.

Saskatoon and Regina five year per person spending