Edmonton Chamber urges budget focus on core services, money Downtown

Article content

The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce is urging city council to prioritize “core” services in its budget to keep property tax increases to a minimum next year, but also spend more money to revitalize Downtown.

Article content

Article content

Chamber CEO Doug Griffiths says Edmonton’s property tax increases in recent years are becoming an “unsustainable” financial burden on families, citizens, and businesses. The chamber, with representatives from developer and real estate lobbyist groups, held a news conference Wednesday saying they want to work with city council to prioritize what municipal services are essential, to identify which are important and should be invested in now or can wait, and which things other levels of government should be paying for instead. Spending more money to revitalize Downtown should be part of the city’s plan, they say.

Article content

Edmonton’s draft 2025 budget includes an 8.1 per cent property tax increase next year. Without changes, property taxes will have gone up 24 per cent in four years. Griffiths says the increases are threatening the city’s competitiveness and straining families and businesses.

“These (increases) represent lost opportunities, lost competitiveness as businesses look to other regions even within this region — other communities — to grow, lost talent as families leave for more affordable options, and lost potential for Edmonton to be the leading city that it needs to be,” Griffiths said.

“Businesses are already grappling with inflation. Adding heavier taxes makes it even harder for them to thrive.”

This is not about critcizing city council, Griffith says. The chamber and lobbyist groups BILD Edmonton Metro, BOMA and NAIOP want to work with them. “This is not about pointing fingers at past decisions. It’s about shaping the future we want for Edmonton.”

Council needs to prioritize what the core services are, Griffiths said — without this, everything can feel “critical.”

Article content

Article content

He thinks most Edmontonians agree snow removal and filling potholes are essential. Housing and Downtown safety are areas where the city is spending money where other orders of government may be responsible. Spending on neighbourhood renewal could, perhaps, be postponed, he suggested.

Article content

While investing Downtown isn’t “life or death,” it’s important, he says, adding the city needs a clear economic development strategy and to “fast track investments to Downtown” that will increase commercial activity and fuel jobs.

“Investing in downtown isn’t a cost, it’s an economic strategy that benefits everyone.”

The chamber will continue advocating to the city, and provincial government — with Alberta’s recent surplus — to fund the Downtown Investment Plan and find ways to bring people Downtown instead of working from home.

Mayor: Businesses need to prioritize Downtown asks

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi says city council has been prioritizing spending on core services and will continue to do so. He’s working on a plan for this budget that will lower the tax increase while continuing investments in core services and economic development.

Article content

But Sohi also thinks the business community needs to prioritize their requests to the city.

Council has already agreed to spend more on cleaning Downtown to benefit businesses, but the recent Downtown Investment Plan asks for $427 million more in government investment, money the city doesn’t have.

“I think it goes both ways,” the mayor told reporters Wednesday at city hall. “If they want us to be disciplined, which we are, then they also need to stop asking for additional investments into the areas that are non-essential at this time.

“They need to tell us, ‘These are the core asks you should focus on,’ instead of saying, ‘Invest close to half-a-billion dollars in additional resources in Downtown,’ because we don’t have the money. And I don’t think it’s a strategic approach either.”

In recent months the mayor has campaigned to have the Alberta government reinstate grants equivalent to property taxes on its buildings, about $15 million a year lost since 2019, to free up more municipal dollars. Sohi said Premier Danielle Smith “assured me that she wants to correct that inequity” in a recent meeting. Griffiths agreed, Wednesday, reinstating the grants in lieu of taxes would help the city’s finances.

Article content

Coun. Tim Cartmell thinks council needs to do a “line-by-line” review of the city’s budget so they can validate how every dollar is spent.

“We need that to rebuild our work structure and then rebuild our budget,” he said. “If we manage the actual dollars we had better then we could invest some of those dollars to do some of the things that the Downtown people are asking for.”

Councillors in the executive committee meeting also heard Wednesday that some city policies, the complexities of its bylaws and other regulations, and scope and design choices, could be driving up the cost of building major infrastructure projects.

[email protected]

@laurby

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.

Article content