Edmonton city council has voted to pass budget amendments.
There will be a 6.1 per cent property tax hike and a redirection of funds for infrastructure renewal work.
“I don’t think anyone is comfortable with a 6.1 per cent tax levy,” Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said. “We always tried to strive to bring it down as much as we can. As you heard yesterday there were a number of motions brought forward by one council member that probably would have lowered the property taxes, but at the cost of core services.”
There will also be a 6.8 per cent property tax increase in 2026.
Mayor Sohi says while no one wants to see a tax hike, the budget amendments still invest in city services.
“It’s always a balance between affordability on the taxes but also the affordability on the services side,” he side. “Because a lot of service that the municipality provides, from public transit to recreational facilities, to libraries, actually make people’s lives more affordable.”
The city says property owners will learn about their tax assessment in January, and will receive their tax notice in May.
Outgoing city councillor Andrew Knack says the property tax increase is happening now because taxes weren’t raised during the pandemic.
“I used the term and I stand by it, we kept them artificially low,” said the councillor for Ward Nakota Isga. “We were not keeping up with population growth in the city — and that’s at a time when population growth wasn’t as rapid as it is now — but we weren’t even keeping up with inflation.”
The city says it made decisions that limited the property tax hike, including savings in contracts, materials and equipment; using the $8 million increase in the EPCOR dividend; using the LRT Reserve to offset the projected transit revenue shortfall for 2025 and 2026; and reducing the annual transfer from the operating budget to fund capital projects by $15 million.
City council also approved service increases without adding to property tax requirements, it says. Those include funding to keep downtown safe; to support industrial development within Edmonton; and for horticulture maintenance and tree pruning.
Council says it approved capital adjustments resulting in a $234 million addition to the capital budget. Those include:
- $105 million in tax-supported debt for the Yellowhead Trail Freeway Conversion Program;
- $87 million in new profiles from the Neighbourhood Renewal Reserve fund;
- $41 million in increased provincial funding for Terwillegar Drive Expressway upgrades.
Edmonton city council also passed a motion to be build the next budget — for the next city council — differently. The next budget cycle will be a line-by-line analysis of each city department. Knack hopes that budget reset will help future city councils.