SASKATOON, SK: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the City of Saskatoon to stop wasting money on so-called art after spending $297,490 on three large plastic rocks, according to documents obtained by the CTF.

“I can’t believe I need to say this: Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for plastic rocks,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “It’s ridiculous and disrespectful to taxpayers that anyone at city hall thought this was a good idea.”

The city paid $297,490 to a Calgary-based artist duo called Sans façon to create “Modern Erratics,” an art piece consisting of three large plastic rocks.

The city could have purchased genuine rocks from local businesses, rather than fake plastic rocks, for about $17,000 to $50,000 each, based on CTF estimates.

The plastic rocks are located in an empty field at the Foresty Farm Park, on the side of Circle Drive in Diefenbaker Park and inside the Material Recovery Centre at the Saskatoon landfill.

The plastic rocks were paid for through a city policy that dedicates up to one per cent of a city project’s budget to public art.

The city hiked property taxes by 6.7 per cent this year. The money spent on the three large plastic rocks is equivalent to the property tax bills of about 118 average households.

“The city should be helping Saskatoon residents by making their lives more affordable, not hiking taxes and making them pay for big plastic rocks,” Haubrich said. “The city needs to cancel this one per cent of spending on art policy so it’s not tempted to do anything like this again. It’s a clear waste of money.”

Saskatoon is no stranger to wasting taxpayers’ money on public art. The city wasted nearly $100,000 putting up colour-changing light balls in a back alley in 2023. In 2024, the city spent more than $8,000 painting doors in the same back alley.