Patio permits in Saskatoon run for the months the weather actually supports outdoor seating, and a restaurant renews or adjusts its setup year to year rather than maintaining a permanent structure through a Saskatchewan winter. That seasonal rhythm is a climate decision as much as a policy one.
The commercial real estate angle is the same one that applies to a residential main-road property: an outdoor structure that has to be built and removed every year is a real annual cost, not a one-time expense, closer in spirit to the $800 to $1,500 a lawyer charges at possession than to a structure a business only pays for once.
So the honest answer is that Saskatoon's outdoor dining never went away, it just never tried to run through a prairie winter in the first place. Get your hand-reviewed valuation from Joel Dyck.