The City of Moose Jaw had a “tremendous year” for economic development, but a tax hike in 2021 is still required to ensure municipal services are provided, the city manager says.
The creation of an internal economic development team in 2018 prepared the municipality to thrive during recent difficult conditions, including the loss of a major land sale in the agri-food industrial park this year, city manager Jim Puffalt said during the Dec. 2 budget meeting.
“We were able to quickly pivot (and) ensure that we had established a sales price and put the Moose Jaw Agri-Food Industrial Park up for sale … ,” he continued, pointing out the municipality should develop an industrial park since there is money to be made there. Once the money is generated, it goes back into the industrial park.
The main anchor tenant will be SaskPower and its Great Plains power station. City hall lobbied the provincial and federal governments in 2020 to ensure the plant would be constructed in Moose Jaw. Puffalt noted the industrial park fits into the provincial government’s future growth plans, while city hall aligned the municipality’s economic development strategy with that plan.
With the Crown corporation finalizing construction and servicing plans, city hall began site-related work this year, including servicing 90 acres north of the power station. It also established a sale price of $200,000 per acre of fully-serviced land.
“We’ve also had preliminary discussions with SaskEnergy … . They need a second access into the City of Moose Jaw. So there may be a way to get that done,” said Puffalt. “Again, exciting times as we work toward the Great Plains power station opening up.”
Another economic success was ensuring Canadian Tire committed to building a major retail development on Thatcher Drive. It had suggested it would pull out after the pandemic hit the retail sector hard, he continued. The company agreed to an agreement extension, and on Nov. 9, removed conditions that allow city hall to proceed with servicing the site in 2021.
As part of the agreement, the municipality will also extend underground services to 21.4 acres north of the site. This area will provide the next location for potential future growth.
After four years of discussions with Donald’s Fine Foods — the owner of Thunder Creek Pork Plant — the company purchased municipal property and also purchased and retrofitted the former XL Beef meat processing plant, said Puffalt. City hall expects to hear from the company in 2021 as it moves forward with its plan.
Another success was working with the Ministry of Education to support the $50-million school development on Westheath land without any loss of costs, development levies or future revenues, he continued. The municipality will be left with about 30 serviced residential lots to sell, with the only cost being the individual lot service connections.
Construction is expected to start next year.
Although these measures, cost savings and revenues generated occurred in 2020, next year will require a municipal tax increase of 2.87 per cent to address city services, said Puffalt. City hall also plans to use one-time funding of $2.18 million from the federal government, which is not expected to be given in 2022.
Even with this federal funding and not using additional tax money from this year, the municipality is still $3 million “behind the 8-ball” before the 2021 budget begins, he continued. That’s why city administration is concerned about future budgets since there are many impacts ahead.
“… we can’t just worry about this year. We have the next 100 years of the city to be concerned about it. If we don’t do something now, we put ourselves in jeopardy,” he added.
Besides the 2.87-per-cent property tax increase, city administration is also suggesting an increase of 1.18 per cent to support the Moose Jaw Police Service, for a total municipal tax increase of 4.05 per cent. A utility tax hike of 11 per cent is also being proposed.
City council’s next budget discussions occur Dec. 9 and 16.
