Financial stewardship is more than low taxes

City must keep long-term viability in mind, writes Coun. Erin Rutherford.

I've been thinking a lot about the role of council as financial stewards of public funds for the City of Edmonton. When I think about what this means, I think about my commitment to ensuring the financial health of the city.

For me, this means supporting the best use of tax dollars and organizational resources in order to leave the organization and city better off than when I came into this role. My definition of financial stewardship is broader than simply keeping tax increases low.

While low taxes can be an indicator of good financial governance and something we should strive for, the public pressure and political popularity of keeping taxes to a minimum can also mean that sometimes low taxes are at the detriment to long-term viability and service erosion.

In other words, when we don't address growth and inflation, we are digging ourselves a knowingly bigger hole and not effectively using our resources because they are spread too thin. I'd argue that's the opposite of financial stewardship.

Some will say it's an easy out to simply raise taxes to balance the budget. My response to that is that I've had to muster up a lot more courage to do what is politically unpopular, but instead is the right thing, to properly steward the organization.

I also think it's crucial to bring a lens of deep awareness and compassion toward the financial challenges being faced by many Edmontonians, along with public desire to see city spending managed well. I am and will continue to do this.

Let's be clear, though: This council didn't start on flat ground. We inherited previous policies that leaned into unsustainable sprawl, a substantial public infrastructure renewal deficit and below-inflation increases. This means it's going to take some time to get out of this hole.

For example, since 2016 the amount of roads and pathways to clear in Edmonton increased by 21 per cent. However, during the same period, the department budget decreased by 14 per cent. Likewise, from 2019 to 2023, the amount of grass in the city increased by 5.1 per cent and horticulture inventory by 18.8 per cent, while the budget for each area decreased by about 10 per cent.

The good news is we're working to address this.

Our four-year capital budget focuses on fixing and maintaining what we already have and building new projects that are necessary for safety services across the city (i.e. fire halls). Other tough decisions have meant that some projects were cancelled or scaled back, such as the shared-use path and park on the High Level Bridge and the 101 Street pedestrian bridge.

Ongoing work to right-size city assets is underway and council will be making some hard decisions on what assets the city needs to consider disposing of. We've already done this with Scona Pool, Hangar 14 and the Coliseum. We also directed administration to downsize the scope for capital projects such as intricate landscaping (which increases operating costs).

On the operating side, we have honed in on core services. To start, council directed administration to systematically go through all 70 lines of business at the City of Edmonton to identify core services and increase efficiencies, so we know exactly what are the “needs to have” versus the “nice to haves.”

The budget has seen strategic investments in areas we know are important to Edmontonians. Snow, turf, transit, waste and community safety are places we've added funding.

We are also robustly looking at revenue-generating activities that will be rolled out over the next couple of years. Additionally, new policies have been implemented that incentivize housing and business development, changes that unlock industrial lands and have created criteria for growth management which highlights what conditions are needed before the city grows out any further ( beyond what is already approved).

All of these activities help right-set the financial health of the city for the long term and create systems that are more resilient to economic conditions.

As long as I have the privilege of serving in this role, I'll continue making the tough decisions that set the City of Edmonton up for success which ultimately sets our broader community up for success, too. This is what I consider financial stewardship and believe many Edmontonians expect from their representatives.