Budget Wrap-Up

21 Dec

We have wrapped up the 2023-2026 budget process. I am thankful to City staff for all of their hard work, and to my colleagues for all the discussion and debate. Thank you to Edmontonians and Karhiio residents for sharing your voices and perspectives - you keep me grounded and remind me that it’s not always about a singular perspective or lived experience, but about understanding ALL of it. This budget isn’t about any one neighbourhood or any one ward; it’s about the whole city. I believe this four-year budget will help us build a better Edmonton.

You can watch my closing speech on the final day of budget deliberations here.

And read the full details on all the numbers here.

You can also watch my post-budget reflections in conversation with Mayor Amarjeet Sohi on December 19 here.

How I Approached the Budget

I approached this budget with three principals: 1) thinking long-term, 2) trying to balance something in with something out (offsetting all of my additions to the budgets with reductions, to limit the tax increase), and 3) Aligning the budget with both the needs of Ward Karhiio and my key platform priorities: Community, Economy, and Climate. (Read more about my approach here). I tried my best to fulfill these commitments.

Affordability and inflation were top of mind for me throughout this discussion — how they are impacting individuals, families and communities. I also took city-wide impact into consideration. I am glad for the programs that will certainly benefit Ward Karhiio, but I also know that they will benefit communities everywhere.

Highlights

We tried a lot of new tools: I was very pleased with the multi-part amendment approach led by the Mayor to kick off both the capital and operating budget processes. Inspired by our colleagues in Calgary, this tool helped us identify our shared priorities as a Council, and saved us time, considering the number of amendments we worked through.

Hearing from so many people. I got to learn a lot of new things and was impressed with the number of people who spoke at the budget public hearings.

Supporting progress on priorities: I think this budget has a balance of priorities and I’m proud of us for pulling through within a tight timeline. We have heard a lot of criticism that this budget is not focused. I disagree. I see strong alignment with my platform priorities of Community, Economy, and Climate — priorities based on what Edmontonians and people in my ward told me was important to them when I was campaigning.

A few aligned items that I’m proud we were able to support are:

Community: with investments in community leagues, affordable housing, crisis diversion, recreation
Economy: with investments in industrial area and supporting Edmonton Screen Industries Office
Climate: with investments in active transportation, climate adaptation and energy transition

We also showed restraint by limiting the number of additions to the budget we could debate, and putting forward suggestions to keep things affordable. A lot of important things were not funded, which was hard to see, but for what we haven’t funded in this budget, we will continue to look for opportunities in the next year.

I offset all of my proposed additions to the budgets with proposed reductions, to limit the tax increase. All of these were hard decisions and not all of them were accepted.

Challenges

People are struggling and there is a lot we did to try to support affordability in this budget. For example, the budget limited the amount of new growth projects and focused more on renewal to invest in and take care of the infrastructure and programs we already have. However, inflation is high. The market is volatile. After several years of tax increases below inflation, sometimes at or near 0%, I think this budget and the proposed tax increases (4.96 per cent in 2023 and in 2024, 4.95 per cent in 2025, and 4.39 per cent in 2026) are reasonable. I support them to provide for our growing city.

In order to find reductions to the budget, there were some instances where we revisited the budget and removed items that we had originally passed, which typically doesn’t happen. Some of these were quite painful for me personally. I withdrew amendments I had initially put forward about the River Valley Trail Strategy, Edmonton Community Development Corporation, and Nature-Based Climate Solutions. While this budget has not been able to accommodate these items, I am committed to seek pathways in the next year to move these conversations forward. And this is part of the democratic process. We have 13 people (12 Councillors and 1 Mayor) putting forward different ideas, based on different values and priorities, and voting on them. You are not going to get everything you ask for. This budget is a reflection of that reality.

Where We Can Do Better

I also see opportunities for us to do better. A four-year city budget is an onerous process, we had a pandemic in the last budget cycle, which dramatically changed the City’s financial realities. We had to drastically cut to achieve no tax increases during the last budget and now this Council is paying for it.

We got many giant binders to understand the budget, with truly amazing information - I commend the City staff here for all of their hard work in pulling all of it together. But it is also a lot of information to process within a few weeks; at times it did feel like a scramble.

A more iterative process: To borrow an example from another sector, the Dyson Vacuum is one of the best in the world, and took years of research and development to develop, with thousands of iterations. No, I’m not asking for thousands of versions of the budget, but I do wonder if there are learnings here that can help us move towards a much more iterative budgeting process.

I think we can all be much more mindful the next time we put up yet another unfunded service package, and ask ourselves whether we have tapped all the resources as much as possible, and how we might unintentionally perpetuate inequity through our actions.

How can we deepen community engagement in the budget process, so that a broader range of Edmontonians are able to share their insights and perspectives?

Three Examples to Discuss Deeper

The budget deliberations are such a huge process. It can be hard to understand decisions as they are made. I want to dig a little deeper into a few key decisions.

Bike Plan Implementation (Bike Network Expansion)

This was an unnecessarily controversial decision. The Edmonton Bike Plan saw extensive engagement when it was approved in 2020, but never had the funding allocated for implementation, until we approved it in this budget cycle. The $100 million for the implementation of the plan will support city-wide expansion of the bike network.
Active transportation infrastructure looks different in different parts of the city. In Ward Karhiio, much of the infrastructure is shared-use paths, which are highly used, particularly during lock-down. However, many of these paths are not connected or are disjointed. The expansion of the bike network will serve to improve connections, making trips more seamless.
Along with this investment in active transportation infrastructure, we’ve also invested over $1.8 billion into roads, and millions more into sidewalks and public transportation. In fact, many active pathways, whether for cycling or walking, are also embedded in neighbourhood renewal and roadway projects like Terwillegar Drive Expansion and Yellowhead Freeway Trail Conversion. Providing infrastructure that offers multiple modes of transportation is important for giving Edmontonians the freedom to move around regardless of their abilities or preference.
Active transportation is also an important means for reducing our community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which as outlined in the Carbon Budget shows we still have a long way to go.
As gas prices increase, more residents are switching to other modes of transportation such as e-bikes and e-scooters. They ask me, how is the city investing in active transportation networks? Ultimately, I think the decision to support Bike Plan Implementation is about increasing the choices Edmontonians have for how to get around the city.

Regional Transit

The hardest decision for me, not only during this budget deliberation but in this past year, was regional transit. I supported the Operating Budget amendment that will see the City of Edmonton withdraw as a member of the Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Service Commission. At the end of the day, I had to put on my Edmonton and Ward Karhiio hat, and I am not convinced that the Commission is the only way to enhance regional public transportation, or the best use of taxpayer dollars.
I was so sure of my decision going into the deliberations, but was ultimately swayed by the information presented, both in public and in private.
While I know that trust has been shaken as a consequence of this decision, the regional transit commission is not the only pathway to regional collaboration. Under the Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board, regional collaboration is also manifested in other policy areas such as land use, agriculture, and regional servicing.
We already have many of the mechanisms for regional transit in place. There are transit routes currently running between Edmonton and our neighbouring municipalities. The new Arc card further facilitates easier access to these commuter routes, with the first fare-capping policy in the country.
As I’ve said before, I am agnostic to the mechanism, but I do want to see a public transportation system that seamlessly connects people in and out of Edmonton with surrounding towns and cities.

One-Off Requests

Throughout the budget hearing, we saw many one-off requests coming from individuals and community organizations, all of whom do incredible work in our communities. However, bringing proposals at the Nth hour directly to City Council bypasses the many granting opportunities and processes we have directed City staff to put in place for many, many other groups.
By accommodating such one-off requests, at times for responsibilities that are outside of a City’s jurisdiction, is inequitable in my opinion, lacks rigour and the necessary due diligence, and undermines the decision-making that we task our staff with.
In the end, we did fund many of these requests, which I didn’t agree with. The alternative is a program like the Recreation Partnership and Facility grant that was funded, albeit at 50% of its original proposed value. This program allows community groups who aspire to build their recreation amenities (i.e., indoor tennis and pickleball court) to access and leverage city dollars for other sources of fundraising, whether from other orders of government or through private donations.
This kind of approach creates a more level playing field and makes it easier for city staff, council offices, and communities to navigate these kinds of recreation facility projects.

In Closing

I know a 4.96% property tax increase may be challenging. I do not take your contributions to our City lightly. I will be here, working alongside you, to make sure that your tax dollars will be used to make Edmonton and our ward a better place to live.

Property Tax Resources

Understanding your property taxes: https://www.edmonton.ca/residential.../property-taxes

Seniors Property Tax Deferral Program: https://www.edmonton.ca/.../tax-assistance-for-seniors

Monthly Payment Plan for Property Taxes: https://www.edmonton.ca/.../property.../monthly-payment-plan