Weddings at the conservatory? Flat revenues have city looking for new cash sources

More than doubling the size of Saskatoon's Civic Conservatory so it can pull double duty as a wedding and meetingspace has joined the growing list of ideas for drumming up much-neededcash for the city.

Last week, city councillors voted in favour of spending $135,000 to work toward a functional plan for a bigger conservatory.

Paired with renovations at the existing conservatory space and next-door Mendel Art Gallery (future home of the Children's Discovery Museum), the potential conservatory expansion would cost an estimated $3.5 million.

Once work is completed, "revenue could be generated from weddings, corporate meetings and community gatherings," according to the city. "An expanded space would also be more marketable to a corporate sponsor."

And while the City admits revenues generated from plant-flanked nuptials and other events would likely not generate a hugeportion of the city's total cash flow,the conservatory idea suggests Saskatoon islooking for any new sources of revenue at a time when money is extremely tight and increasingly hard to find.

Flatlining revenues

Everyone and their dog knows by now how the yankedgrants-in-lieu once paid to the city by the provincial government have left a big financial hole in the city's pocket.

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But that's just one reason why the city is staring down a 4.96-per-cent property tax for 2018.

The other, less-talked-about factor? Many sources of non-property-tax revenue including speeding fines anduser fees for some city-owned leisure centres have taken a tumble or barely budged in recent years.

This, despite a city population that continues to grow, with over 6,000 new residents expected to arrive (and drive up costs)next year.

"What's likely a little more concerning is our situation around non-tax revenues," Murray Totland, the city's departing city manager, said when introducing the 2018 budget earlier this month.

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"Our user fees are essentially flat," he added.

Zoo still a roaring success

Not all source of fees are going down, mind you. The Forestry Farm Park and Zoo continues to be a cash cow, err, red panda. From 2012 to 2016, revenues from the site grew by 18.8 per cent to $946,000.

Cash proceeds from rinks, parking tickets and sites like the Harry Bailey Aquatic Centre and the Shaw Centre also went up during the same period.

But the overall amount money from user fees has remained stagnant, hovering around the $50 millionrange from 2013 to 2016. And revenuelevels for some areas, like Saskatoon Transit,are expected to remain in neutral this year and in 2018.

Money from the landfill and other waste management sources has especially sliddownhill, from $6 million only three years ago to $4.5 million last year. Now the city ismovingto a new garbage-as-a-utility-fee scheme.

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But also and this is not a bad thing in itself, obviously residents are also getting a little more law-abiding, which is not doing wonders for the city's pocketbook.

Revenue from speeding tickets began trending downwards ever since the city installed traffic cameras at key intersections.

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Conservatory pitch 'troubling'

The cumulative result of this? The city is relying more and more on property taxes and banking on potential new revenue sources like the conservatory-as-wedding-site idea plus the already-pitched notion of reviving an amusement tax to keep the lights on.

Not that people don't have things to say about those ideas.

"I am delighted to learn that the city is considering restoring and possibly expanding the civic conservatory," resident Peggy Sarjeant wrote city councillors recently.

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"The current observatory is so tiny that visitors are often almost rubbing shoulders with each other."

But she also finds the notion of adding other functions and programming to the space "troubling."

"I fail to see the need to 'animate' this space. Cannot the plants speak for themselves?"

Charge on sporting events, too: cinemachain

Reviving the city's long-scrapped amusement tax could, if swiftly approved, shave down the 4.96-per-cent property tax hike to 4.51 per cent. The idea has hovered quietly around the Budget 2018 discussions since August.

But the opposition is already mounting even though the idea's barely been debated by city councillors. (It's near the top of the agenda for Monday's 2 p.m. finance committee meeting.)

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Michael Paris, a lawyer for Cineplex Entertainment, has written the city to stress the importance of keeping ticket prices the way they are.

The company, Canada's largest theatre chain, owns the downtown Scotiabank Theater which would be exempt from any revived amusement tax and the older Odeon Centre on 8th Street, which would not.

"Cineplex believes that movie theatres compete well with [other]forms of entertainment as a result of cinema's lower cost and higher availability," wrote Paris.

Unfair advantage

Paris also noted previously-voiced concerns from other exhibitors about Cineplex's exemption from the tax (for the Scotiabank location) and "a disproportionate burden among the other businesses" not required to pay it.

Given that Cineplex's exemption would apply to a revived tax, "to the best of our knowledge, those concerns would still apply today," wrote Paris.

Tom Hutchinson, the president of Magic Lantern Theatres which owns The Roxy on 20th Street and the Rainbow Cinema on 8th Street is more blunt in his resistance.

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"An amusement tax in Saskatoon needs to be fair and across the board, with no rebates or grants associated," he said. It should apply to "all tickets to entertainments of any type, such as symphony, plays, professional athletic games, concerts, movies at all cinemas regardless of location or ownership, and fairs and carnivals."

"Athletics and major concerts generate the most box office revenue and would result in the highest return to the city," he added.

'On the backs of taxpayers'

Some city councillors have also expressed doubts about some of the "viable"revenue-generating ideas touted by the city.

"My general concern here is that the theme on these top 10 [ideas] are basically on the backs of taxpayers," said councillor Troy Davies when the amusement tax plus a fee for secondary suites were first proposed back in August.

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"In a year like this," echoed fellow councillor Randy Donauer, "where we're looking at a significant ask for tax increase, I'm sort of looking at what we can do to trim our spending and get our budget back in place before I'm looking at introducing new taxes."

Something has to give, though. A report from the city's internal auditor on yet more ways to generate revenues should be hitting councillors' desks by the end of the year.

And as Totland told councillors on Budget Day: with the once-dependablegrants-in-lieu maybe gone for good, "I don't see these challenges changing any time soon."