Moose Jaw's Debt

Get The Facts About Moose Jaw's Escalating Debt

Since the last municipal election in 2006, Moose Jaw City Council has voted to borrow $63,000,000.
This amounts to $1954 per person.

Compare this to other Saskatchewan cities (as of Dec 31, 2007)

City	Total Debt	Cost Per Person
Regina	$43,290,000	$241
Saskatoon	$47,656,000	$235
Prince Albert	$6,876,137	$210

Moose Jaw will go from $0 debt to $63,000,000 debt in 14 months!
Moose Jaw residents will carry a cost per person debt 8 times higher than people in Regina.

At 4%, the annual interest on $63,000,000 is $2,520,000.
That is $2,520,000 the residents of Moose Jaw were not paying before but will have to pay now and for the next 25 years.

$2,520,000 is 3 times the total amount spent on road repair for the entire city each year.

A 1% municipal property tax increase raises $155,000.
$2,520,000 in interest requires the equivalent of a 16.25% municipal tax increase.

But not all the interest will come from property tax increases - some will come from your water and sewer bill.

Increases	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Water	5%	10%	10%	5%	-
Sewer	10%	15%	15%	15%	10%

Moose Jaw's $63,000,000 debt - how it will be spent:

Sewage treatment plant	$11,700,000
Sewer line to XL Beef	5,000,000
Waterworks utility	6,000,000
Westheath subdivision	2,000,000
Downtown multiplex	38,300,000
Total	$63,000,000

Note: The downtown multiplex amount of $38,300,000 includes the recently added $6.5 million borrowed to cover as of yet uncollected fundraising pledged over time.

Resources

Download a printable version of this page to give away or deliver in your neighbourhood (.pdf - Adobe Reader)
Answer to enquiry Sept. 27, 2008 Number of requests for Moose Jaw to increase their debt level.
Answer to Enquiry Dec. 17, 2008 Debt levels of other Saskatchewan cities.