The city of Saskatoon decided to spend more than $90,000 to light up a downtown back alley with decorative mesh balls and lightbulbs, according to information obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF)..“Shining fancy lights on back-alley dumpsters is a garbage way of using taxpayer dollars,” said CTF Prairie Director Gage Haubrich on Wednesday..“The city of Saskatoon needs to give its head a shake after this project.”.The project is between 2nd and 3rd Avenues South and was presented in December 2022..“This one-of-a-kind lighting project invites residents and tourists to visit spaces less travelled and discover a side of the city they might have never seen before,” said the city..According to the documents, the total cost was $122,174, with the city paying $91,485..The remaining $30,689 was paid by some downtown businesses and the downtown business improvement district..It took the city’s property taxes of approximately 37 average homes to pay its part of the cost..The city of Saskatoon has significant expenses coming due, spending over $17 million on land for a proposed arena site and the new library’s cost increased to $79 million..City council voted to cover the extra snow removal costs by going into debt..“The city shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to get people to spend more time in back alleys,” said Haubrich. .“The city of Saskatoon needs to commit to respecting taxpayer dollars and not wasting it on frivolous art projects.”
The city of Saskatoon decided to spend more than $90,000 to light up a downtown back alley with decorative mesh balls and lightbulbs, according to information obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF)..“Shining fancy lights on back-alley dumpsters is a garbage way of using taxpayer dollars,” said CTF Prairie Director Gage Haubrich on Wednesday..“The city of Saskatoon needs to give its head a shake after this project.”.The project is between 2nd and 3rd Avenues South and was presented in December 2022..“This one-of-a-kind lighting project invites residents and tourists to visit spaces less travelled and discover a side of the city they might have never seen before,” said the city..According to the documents, the total cost was $122,174, with the city paying $91,485..The remaining $30,689 was paid by some downtown businesses and the downtown business improvement district..It took the city’s property taxes of approximately 37 average homes to pay its part of the cost..The city of Saskatoon has significant expenses coming due, spending over $17 million on land for a proposed arena site and the new library’s cost increased to $79 million..City council voted to cover the extra snow removal costs by going into debt..“The city shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to get people to spend more time in back alleys,” said Haubrich. .“The city of Saskatoon needs to commit to respecting taxpayer dollars and not wasting it on frivolous art projects.”
