Rec facilities, tax burden dominate budget hearing
City council was pulled in polarizing directions Thursday at a public hearing ahead of upcoming budget deliberations, as some speakers called for frugality while others pleaded for debt-funded spending to fill service gaps.
More than 170 people registered to speak at a hearing for citizens and groups to give council feedback ahead of their budget deliberations that will set city spending and property taxes for the next four years.
West-end residents came out in force to speak out in favour of funding the $300 million Lewis Farms Community Recreation Centre and Library, saying theirs remains the only quadrant of the city without a recreation centre. Its absence has meant overcrowding at the closest options, such as the Terwillegar centre, and driving out of the city to other municipalities to access services.
The youngest citizen to speak was nine-year-old figure skater Amelie Tessier, who asked council to fund a new recreation facility in the west end so she can skate on rinks that are less crowded, and spend less of her life driving across the city to get to lessons.
“Then I can spend more time at home, and I can start my homework earlier, and it doesn’t have to be such a big deal for my mom to travel,” she said.
Her mother, Irina Langreiter, a former president of Lewis Estates community league, said she has two daughters who figure skate, and sometimes has to be at two different rinks on the same day, driving 40 minutes one-way between the two rinks.
“I think we have paid our dues for a really long time, and supported other facilities across the city, and it certainly is the time for the west end,” Langreiter said.
City administration put the facility on the list of unfunded projects that council could decide to pay for with debt as part of the proposed capital budget, which lays out a plan for $4.3 billion in spending for city building and repair projects.
Council is also tackling the operating budget, which covers dayto-day service spending. The proposed operating budget prepared by city staff pitches tax increases of 3.3 per cent in 2019, 2.7 per cent in 2020, and a two per cent hike in both 2021 and 2022.
That means the owner of a $397,000 house who paid $2,461 in 2018, would pay $2,720 in 2022.
But it was business owners who came out in force to object to increases in property taxes. Hiking municipal taxes would make an already challenging business environment untenable, council heard from all manner of business owners, from restaurateurs to engineers to optometrists.
“We simply cannot afford more bad news from government. In particular, we can’t afford property tax hikes,” said Karen Naylor, whose family owns a hotel in south Edmonton.
Other business owners spoke about lingering pressures from the downturn in the energy economy, the increase in the province’s minimum wage, and hikes in taxes from other levels of government. An increase in property taxes would just add to the pile of costs that they say makes building a business in Edmonton challenging.
“Our property taxes have risen at alarming rates over the last decade, and we have to really get this under control,” said Janet Riopel, president and CEO of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, after listening to several entrepreneurs speak.
The chamber will be making its own presentation to council, but Riopel said it has already made a number of suggestions on how the city could better control spending, including outsourcing operations and maintenance of services like recreation centres to private companies or non-profits.
Another group that turned out en masse was Disabled Adult Transit Service users, who called for increased vehicles and drivers because they say the service has become so unreliable that people who use it can’t have a job, and have trouble getting to appointments or arranging daily errands.
“Without access to proper transit people with disabilities, including myself, are isolated and cut off from bettering ourselves in municipal life and living,” said DATS user Bailey Dawn Coty.
With each speaker allotted five minutes to speak, plus time for council questions, many people registered to speak about issues were asked to return for overflow hearings later this month.
City council will begin deliberating both budgets on Nov. 28, and will have 10 days to hash out spending for the next four years.