Sask. mayors say financial help from feds needed to survive impacts of COVID-19

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“We are restricted in terms of knowing what we can do to pay for things, particularly for our central services like water, waste water, fire, police, garbage collection, snow removal,” Fougere saidlast week. “All these central services that people want to see are in fact in danger of us being able to do those because of the lack of cash flow.”

While the B.C. government has said cities in that province will be given permission to maintain a deficit for this year, Fougere and Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark rejected the idea, calling it shortsighted.

“Running deficits is not a solution,” Clark said during a media call Friday morning. “What we need is a multi-pronged strategy between all levels of government, federal, provincial and municipal to make sure that cities aren’t left behind in this challenge.”