WELL DONE, COUNCIL
If there was ever a time in the last quartercentury that Edmontonians needed a break on their property taxes, this surely is the year. Many residents and businesses — already coping with the collateral damage of COVID-19 that includes layoffs, lost income and revenue, and increased costs — and who are now hunkering down for at least four weeks of semi-lockdown over the holidays aren't in the financial shape or mood to easily swallow what's become an annual increment.
Full credit goes to council and administration for astutely reading the room this year. In a 12-1 vote, Edmonton councillors passed the 2021 budget last Friday which, for the first time since 1997, freezes property taxes.
In something of a Christmas miracle, council found $64 million in savings to shrink next year's tax levy to zero from the previously approved 3.2 per cent, with about $57 million in proposed reductions. This was done without slashing key public services and infrastructure as originally planned. Council, for example, saved five aging recreation facilities initially on the chopping block for 2021 as the city continues to develop replacements. It's good news for those in the mature neighbourhoods who rely on these amenities to support their health and wellness. Transit service and the city's spayand-neuter service were also spared from cuts.
Yet, despite the reprieve, the miracle work could only go so far.
“I want to acknowledge that this isn't a goodnews budget, and that's its going to be specifically bad news for some people,” said Ward 5 Councillor Sarah Hamilton.
Indeed, more than 300 City of Edmonton positions will be eliminated. While many are already vacant, about 112 current employees will need to be laid off. Holding the line also means funding for community leagues takes a hit and transit fares for tickets and passes will go up by two per cent in February.
Still, the budget's tax freeze earned kudos from the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, a group not known for its high praise of municipal budgets. The chamber went so far as to ask for “a continued commitment to transformational change in order to make our city more efficient for the long run.”
Mayor Don Iveson Iveson was quick to temper expectations for future tax relief: “I would suggest that we're getting at the limits of what you can do there without fundamentally affecting service levels.”
Even if the tax freeze was only borne out of special circumstance rather than being a new normal for Edmonton's budget deliberations, for this year, it is the right thing to do.