In brief, this post highlights three items of public interest that were discussed during the February 2022 City Council meeting.
Highlights include:
- Vehicle Noise Mitigation Study Final Report
- Assisted Waste Collections Program
- Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) Expansion
Other items that were discussed during the meeting include:
- Approval of the Recreation and Sport Tax Abatement Policy
The full agenda for February 28, 2022 can be found here. This meeting of City Council took place through teleconference and was recorded, as per any other City Council meeting.
Vehicle Noise Mitigation Study
Nuisance vehicle noise, from stunting, racing and modified mufflers, have been a concern for many neighbours in our ward and across the City. In response to this concern, the City hired a noise specialist to research, review, engage stakeholders, provide a cost estimate, and ultimately recommend possible mitigation measures in response to vehicle noise concerns. This is in addition to past work undertaken by the City, Saskatoon Police Service and SGI.
The report is quite comprehensive and provides recommendations for the short, medium and long-term. The recommendations that do not require new funding or can be incorporated into existing budgets were approved to move ahead right away, with the remaining items being sent to this years budget cycle for prioritization. This would allow new funding to be allocated where needed, and further work on prioritization to take place.
The report highlights that Saskatoon is experiencing many of the same issues that other cities are dealing with, where unfortunately no "silver-bullet" solution exists. While it is disappointing there are no commercially available products to help us regulate this nuisance behaviour, the City will continue to work through how to implement the recommendations from the noise specialist.
The full report and recommendations are available here.
Assisted Waste Collections Program
The City currently offers a limited support program for assisting households with waste collections in situations where a household may experience challenges in rolling out their bins. The City has been working to expand this program to ensure all residents that are eligible for this service can receive it.
The report before Council this month highlighted how we will be expanding the service to ensure all eligible households can receive this service.
The intent for this revised program is to begin accepting applications in the third quarter of 2022 and begin providing service for new locations in early 2023.
The full report can be found here.
Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) Expansion
The Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) has been incredibly successful since its launch in September. I am pleased to share that the City of Saskatoon has received a grant and loan from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to expand our program. This expansion allows for the following:
- The substantial increase in available funding, allowing more households to participate;
- The expansion of the income qualified households criteria; and
- The addition of rebates.
The program is currently anticipated to support approximately 331 participants. Learn more about the program here.