P3s, land sales help City of Saskatoon save $183 M in 2015

Using Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) for several major Saskatoon projects helped the city save millions in 2015.

A report titled Saskatoon Strides - 2015 Report on Service, Savings and Sustainability presented to city council Thursday outlined $183 million in savings last year.

The savings are significantly more than the previous few years.

• $48 million was saved in 2012
• $50 million was saved in 2013
• $63 million was saved in 2014

Catherine Gryba, general manager of corporate performance with city of Saskatoon, told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning that $161 million of the savings came from using the P3 method of procurement for the North Commuter Parkway Bridge, the Traffic Bridge and the Civic Operations Centre.

"P3 is new to many municipalities in Canada and we were expecting savings, but that order of magnitude was much higher than we had anticipated," Gryba said.

Gryba added that those results show that using the P3 method might be the way to go for some projects down the road.

The savings also include $16 million in financial returns from land sold and $5 million in operational efficiencies.

Some savings were simple, Gryba explained, like $115,000 in postage saved as the city saw the amount of residents receiving utility bills online go to 13 per cent from 11 per cent.

'We were expecting savings, but that order of magnitude was much higher than we had anticipated."- Catherine Gryba,general manager of corporate performance

The city saved $250,000 by using a new de-icing product that led to less street cleanup in the spring.

Switching payments for community associations to e-transfers also saved $4,000.

"The point is we're looking for savings in all areas of our business. And those savings result in a reduced increase request for the property tax."

Gryba said that administration is already looking at what savings have been made in 2016 as it works on the 2017 budget.