Value of city services in spotlight ahead of budget

Heading into a tight city budget, a new community initiative hopes to highlight to city council the importance of investing in services and infrastructure by providing a public platform.

The online campaign Thrive YEG launched Tuesday morning and allows Edmontonians to share how investing in city programs has made a difference in their lives and why it is important to continue to do so heading into budget deliberations.

“It grew out of this idea of listening to all of the conversations around the upcoming budget and hearing from people, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we also talked about the things, the value we get out of citizens investing in public services?’ ” Thrive YEG founder Julie Kusiek said in an interview.

“This will help to communicate to city council all the things that we do appreciate about what the city is ... investing in.”

Thrive YEG’s launch is a counter point to lobby efforts by Prosperity Edmonton and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, who are calling for a freeze on property taxes. They say taxes have increased too quickly over the last decade and are driving businesses from Edmonton.

The chamber of commerce formed a task force to look for ways to cut, recommending, for example, Edmonton explore third-party operators such as the YMCA for recreation centres. The chamber is also urging Edmonton to hold the line with unions on wages and benefits.

Some cuts will be on the table. Coun. Andrew Knack asked officials to outline what cutting up to four per cent of the budget would look like. That will likely affect small, neighbourhood pools and other services.

Kusiek said stories about the benefits of city services can be submitted at thriveyeg.ca.

“The idea is the more people and the more diversity of people that submit their stories, the more well-rounded picture we have and that’s the positive well-rounded dialogue I think is going to be important in a budget like we’re going to have,” she said.

Council is scheduled to get its first look at the four-year capital budget on Oct. 23 and the operating budget on Nov. 7.