Property taxes creep higher after Explore Edmonton gets steady funding

Property taxes for homeowners could now be going up to 6.92 per cent after council approved ongoing funding for Explore Edmonton Wednesday. But if one councillor had his way, next year’s price-tag could have been substantially higher.

Calling for council to “rip off the Band-Aid,” Coun. Aaron Paquette put forward an ambitious motion which would dramatically altered the city’s operating budget — calling for the city to put $64.5 million to restore the financial stabilization reserve to its minimal amount this year.

Paquette’s motion would have increased 2026’s property tax increase to more than nine per cent. But he added this would have allowed the city to have much lower tax increases in the following years.

Paquette predicted under the current five-year repayment plan, ratepayers could be hit with larger ongoing tax hikes for several years.

“We are in fiscally dire shape of not having enough dollars to maintain the city,” he said. “The numbers don’t lie and the facts don’t lie. People want tax relief, but if we provide an extremely low tax implication in this budget, all that does is push forward more costs into the future where they become more expensive to handle.

“If you look at the whole picture instead of the crisis management of year-after-year panicking, you will see tax rates become much more affordable and we’ll be able to maintain the city, which means we don’t keep (putting off) costs onto the next year.”

Paquette’s motion was defeated 12-1.

Council approved a motion by Coun. Erin Rutherford to provide $11 million in additional annual funding to Explore Edmonton through the tax levy. The decision means property taxes are poised to rise by 6.9 per cent with one more day of debate to come.

Council voted 8-5 to approve the ongoing funding for Explore Edmonton with Couns. Reed Clarke, Thu Parmar, Karen Principe, Michael Elliott and Mayor Andrew Knack voting against.

Speaking to reporters, Knack said every dollar the city spends on Explore Edmonton brings $29 to the economy.

“The only challenge of course is it’s not $29 returned to the City of Edmonton as an organization,” he said. “But to all the local businesses, the hotels, the people who are working in these small and medium businesses. So I think there is a lot of appetite to support that.”

Coun. Ashley Salvador called for just shy of $3 million to be pulled from the Epcor dividend to put towards Dedicated Accessible Transit Service (DATS), which is slated to hit one million trips in 2025. The funding covers roughly 120,000 trips. Last year DATS was used more than was budgeted for, resulting in a structural deficit.

“These are Edmontonians that need to get to medical appointments and need to get groceries,” said Rutherford in support of the motion.

The motion was passed unanimously. Because the funding is coming from the Epcor dividend, the budget increase won’t impact property taxes.

Knack said the city would integrate the funding into the next four-year budget cycle.

“If that wasn’t approved, the system would get worse,” he said. “This is just keeping up with the growth, now that ridership is at an all time high for DATS, not approving that funding would have resulted in a service level decrease for people using DATS.”

Principe put forward a proposal to cease funding for an undisclosed contractual line item by $4.7 million and put that towards the property tax levy.

“I think there’s a way for us to be more pragmatic and that means maybe saying ‘No’ once in awhile,” she said. “This is a strategy I’m taking to try to lower the tax levy.”

The motion was defeated 8-5.

Principe also proposed to cut $2.1 million from city’s vandalism control efforts and return that to the tax levy, which council defeated 9-4 . She also called for the $5 million Epcor dividend to be put towards the tax levy, which councillors defeated 9-4.

Councillors also voted 11-2 to allocate $555,000 from the tax levy to ensure transit cleaning services are paid a living wage, which will raise property taxes a further 0.02 per cent. Couns. Parmar and Prinicpe voted against.

Coun. Anne Stevenson called for $253,000 to be pulled from hiring two peace officers and purchasing a new fleet vehicle to patrol downtown, which was part of a capital plan to open a pedway over 103A Avenue and 99 Street to the museum and put the funding towards the tax levy.

Mayor and council expressed confusion as to why a work order to build a pedway included a motion to hire peace officers, but administration explained it was following direction from council to include operational costs in capital project proposals.

Stevenson’s motion was defeated 9-4 — she voted against her own motion.

Council will continue to debate potential increases to the budget Thursday with upgrades to Whitemud Drive on the table.

ebowling@postmedia.com

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