As Council enters into our annual Spring Operating Budget Adjustments (SOBA), I wanted to share my continued frustration with how Premier Smith’s failure to govern responsibly is impacting our municipalities.
Mayor Sohi recently wrote to Premier Smith outlining the increasing number of ways the provincial government is cutting funding to municipalities (Read and share the letter). Not only is it irresponsible, it is expensive and unsustainable.
You have probably seen my comments by now about the Provincial government deciding to stop paying their property taxes in 2019 (https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/michael-janz-alberta-govt-needs-to-pay-its-property-taxes-too). That decision has cost Edmonton approximately $60 million dollars, and that amount grows each year.
Just a few of the other provincial decisions that are costing Edmontonians money are:
- Not designating Highways 2 and 16 as provincial, as they did with Deerfoot Trail in Calgary, downloading maintenance costs onto Edmonton to the tune of approximately $17 million annually.
- Provincial funding for local infrastructure dropped from about $424 per Albertan in 2011 to about $154 per Albertan today.
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Amending the funding formula for municipal funding from the province (formerly known as the Municipal Sustainability Initiative), short changing Edmonton by approximately $36 million per year.
- In 2023 the City of Edmonton incurred $9.1 million in direct costs associated with drug poisonings a 790% increase since 2018.
- not repaying Edmonton $2.2 Million in provincially mandated costs for the 2023 Shigella outbreak.
- Cutting funding for DNA testing in 2020, costing Edmonton approximately $5 million per year.
- Underfunding emergency medical responses, costing Edmonton $28 Million in 2023 alone, due to Edmonton firefighters responding in lieu of.
- Cutting municipality's share of fine revenue from automated traffic enforcement in 2019, costing Edmonton approximately $5-6 million each year since.
- Underfunding public health responsibilities resulting in higher police costs (According to the police, much of the police service calls are non-police work, but failures in health care and the police are the largest item in the city budget and we pay the highest per capita for policing in Alberta)
There are more but I think you get the picture. Currently, 1% of our municipal tax rate is approximately $20 million. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Smith government’s failure to pay their bills is accounting for 7% of Edmonton’s tax rate- likely much more.
Yes, we have other financial pressures at the city level. I am not trying to shirk off any responsibility for effectively managing our books as a city or rigorous accountability for expenditures. Many councillors are working very hard to address the root causes and identify solutions (such as curbing urban sprawl).
No matter who you voted for, Mayor, or MLA, now more than ever we all need to come together and demand a fair deal from the legislature like Premier Smith calls for from Ottawa.
