What does not go away is legal work. Every Saskatoon closing, cash or mortgaged, runs through a lawyer who handles the title search through Information Services Corporation, typically for $800 to $1,500, and property taxes are still prorated between buyer and seller at possession regardless of financing.
A cash buyer also skips the interest cost of borrowing entirely, which is a real number over the life of a loan but is not a closing cost in the traditional sense, it is an ongoing cost that simply never starts.
The savings are real, just narrower than they sound. Get your hand-reviewed valuation from Joel Dyck.