Edmonton’s mayor wants citizens to put pressure on the provincial government to stop making choices he says are shortchanging city coffers.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi’s office has launched a campaign website called the Fair Compensation Project with the goal of increasing awareness about how provincial decisions are pushing up city costs, Sohi said in a news conference Tuesday at city hall.
First on a lengthy list of Sohi’s grievances with the province is a 2019 decision not to pay the full cost of property taxes for provincial buildings in the city.
“We are not asking for a special deal,” Sohi said. “All we’re asking for [is] Government of Alberta, please step up to pay your taxes. Please step up to do your job in areas that you are responsible for, such as health care, such as mental health, such as addictions and recovery.”
At issue is a program in which the province gives municipalities grants in the place of property taxes it would owe on buildings located in those cities or towns.
In 2019, the United Conservative Party government, then led by Jason Kenney, cut those grants by 50 per cent over two years to reduce provincial expenses. The city has no legal recourse to demand the province pays up.
This year’s provincial budget includes about $38 million in grants in place of taxes, which is about half the amount the province owes municipalities. Also affected and frustrated are councils in St. Albert, Drumheller, and Big Lakes County.
Sohi says the provincial government should pay the City of Edmonton $80 million it has withheld since 2019, and pay its full tax bill in future years. That would eliminate the city’s deficit this year, and reduce a planned 13 per cent tax hike by 0.8 per cent in future years, he said.
He asked Edmontonians to write to the premier and the municipal affairs minister to apply political pressure to restore the funding.
As Alberta’s capital, Edmonton is most affected by the spending cut, because it is home to so many provincial buildings.
Premier wants more information about effects
Last week, at the Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer, association president Tyler Gandam asked Premier Danielle Smith why municipalities should accept the property tax underpayment.
Smith acknowledged the policy is especially hard on Edmonton. She said she needs more information about the implications for communities.
“Get that information to us. We start our budget process in the fall, and then we have a new budget coming out in February,” she said last Thursday in Red Deer. “So, this would be the right time for us to figure out what the cost of that would be.”
Sohi said his staff will add more advocacy issues to the Fair Compensation Project website during the coming weeks and months to bring the premier up to speed on other ways he says the province has reduced municipal funding.
In April, Sohi wrote to Smith outlining nine ways the UCP government has reduced funding to municipal governments.
Among the other pressures are EMS shortages that have prompted the city to spend more on firefighters responding to medical emergency calls. The province also increased the share it takes from fine revenues collected by the city. While the province pays to maintain Calgary’s Deerfoot Trail, Edmonton covers the cost of upkeep on Yellowhead Trail and Whitemud Drive, Sohi said.
Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver’s press secretary, Heather Jenkins, said in a statement Tuesday that McIver is committed to reviewing the grants in place of taxes program in the upcoming budget. She said McIver will also connect the mayor with provincial departments in charge of programs where Sohi feels the city is covering provincial responsibilities.
Jenkins also pointed to money in this year’s provincial budget allocated for infrastructure projects in Edmonton.