Edmonton city council begins budget deliberations, looks to fill fiscal gap
CBC
Edmonton city council is looking to maintain core services as it faces the task of trying to address a potential multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall.
Monday marked the first day of fall budget deliberations at city hall.
From traffic safety enforcement to waste services and utilities, city council is looking at areas where it can adjust the budget to keep Edmonton on track financially.
City administration has proposed a 6.4 per cent property tax hike for 2026.
Councillors will look for ways to try to shave down that number, but need to find a way to cover $3.8 billion in expenses if they want to maintain services at their current levels. With the tax hike that administration is currently proposing, $2.28 billion of that would come through property taxes.
The rest would be funded from other sources like user fees, fines, permits and Epcor dividends.
In 2023, the provincial government announced plans to mandate bodycams for all police officers in Alberta. For the Edmonton Police Service, the use of bodycams by its members began to roll out in 2024.
In a report prepared for council ahead of budget deliberations, city administrators said that in order “to be fully compliant with the provincial [bodycam] mandate, an ongoing increase to EPS is required, with an increase to expenses of $9.2 million in 2026, and incremental increases of $2.4 million in 2027, and $0.9 million in 2028, offset by a one-time provincial grant of $2.3 million in each of 2026 and 2027.”
Some city councillors suggested more clarity is needed when it comes to funding bodycams.
“Before I'm comfortable funding this, I would need to see a clear sort of rights and responsibilities delineation of who has to pay what before, yet again, we go back to the Edmonton taxpayers,” said Ward papastew Coun. Michael Janz.
EPS Chief Warren Driechel told city council that conversations with the province and the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service are ongoing.
“I think it's just a very sudden change in the technology landscape that's, you know, requiring us to figure out who's responsible, especially as we scale up the program,” he said. “It's the sheer volume of the video and crew.”
The issue of traffic safety enforcement also came up at city hall on Monday.
Mayor Andrew Knack was among those on council to question Driechel on the specifics of implementing a traffic safety enforcement strategy for Edmonton.
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