CommonSenseEdmonton
Edmonton City Council recently debated and passed their next 4 year budget, covering the period from 2023-26.
When Councillors began deliberations, the budget in front of them suggested a tax increase of 3.9% in each year of the four-year budget.
But after debate, discussion, and a Mayor who just couldn’t help but spend more, Edmontonians are now facing an increase of almost 5%.
During the budget discussions, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi proposed an omnibus amendment to the original budget prepared by the City, which added millions in extra spending.
Some of the highlights of the Sohi Spending Spree include:
- $53 million in green retrofits of City buildings
- $11.2 million for emissions-neutral City vehicles
- $100 million for new bike lanes
- $8.4 million for improving streetscaping
Sohi’s spending is intended, according to him, to help with the affordability crisis.
But, let's not forget that every dollar the City spends is a dollar than Edmontonians don't have, so all he's doing is paying for things with our own money - things we might have been able to afford to begin with if he hadn't taken so much of our money in the first place!
To be fair, one of Mayor Sohi's line items is $22 million for affordable housing, but when it's his anti-growth and anti-development policies that have contributed to the unaffordability of housing in the first place, a few dollars to subsidize slightly-less expensive housing isn't going to achieve much.
It would be far better to get rid of the red tape, get building, and bring down the cost of all new housing.
That way every home could be affordable, rather than only the ones that the City pays for.
Council did cut in some places - they opted out of $13 million in annual funding toward a regional transit service - but it cost taxpayers $15 million (once) to back out of the deal.
But they also committed more money to transit in other ways, including - bizarrely - making it so that children under the age of 12 will be able to ride for free, even when they're not with an adult.
We understand how letting kids ride free when with a parent is helpful for many Edmontonians.
But, given the rampant crime on the transit system at the moment, are people actually letting their kids take transit on their own?
Maybe we're wrong on that? Let us know if you disagree!
In the end, the reality is that a property tax hike is incoming, largely because Councillors wanted to spend more cash instead of finding efficiencies.
They wanted to spend on frivolous things that the average Edmontonian just doesn’t care about - especially in the middle of an affordability crisis.
Now, Council made sure to note that, despite the budget being approved, “budgets are fluid” and can change in the future, so there's hope they might see sense eventually.
But remember - that means they can come back and increase spending later too!
The best time to find efficiencies was before voting to spend more, but the second best time to do it is now!
Buckle up Edmonton.
Taxpayers are in for a bumpy ride over the next four years.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Hot on the heels of the unnecessary and wasteful "carbon budget", the City of Edmonton has another brilliant idea - spending $100 million on more bike lanes.
Yes, you read that right - $100 MILLION.
$100 million of spending, requested by Mayor Sohi, and approved as an amendment to the budget by a 9-4 vote on Friday.
Here's who voted in favour:
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, and Councillors Erin Rutherford, Aaron Paquette, Keren Tang, Ashley Salvador, Andrew Knack, Anne Stevenson, Michael Janz, and Jo-Anne Wright.
And here's who voted against:
Councillors Tim Cartmell, Sarah Hamilton, Karen Principe, and Jennifer Rice.
At a time when Edmontonians are already facing record increases in property taxes, Council must be delusional if they think this boondoggle is the absolute most important thing the City should be spending our hard-earned taxpayer money on!
Sohi even has the gall to claim that this amendment is intended to help with the affordability crisis!
But the $100 million he wants to spend on Bike Lanes is almost 5 times the amount he wants to spend on affordable housing.
In fact, it’s almost double the City's annual snow-clearing budget!
As if that weren’t bad enough, the City is already in so much debt that they had to vote to raise their own debt limit in order to keep spending.
$100 million is a really, really large amount of money.
Edmonton is dealing with encampments, the deaths of homeless people on the streets, women being turned away from crisis shelters due to lack of space, a mismanaged LRT line build that is years away from completion, and an outbreak of Shigella - a disease that normally only occurs in developing countries.
We have third-world conditions in a modern city, and the Mayor’s priority is bike lanes?
Budget discussions are continuing this week, so there’s still time to have this amendment reversed and this ridiculous spending removed from the budget.
If you agree that $100 million is too much money to spend on bike lanes, please sign our petition to Council calling Stop The Bike Lane Boondoggle:
| STOP THE BIKE LANE BOONDOGGLE |
Once you've signed, please share the petition with your friends, family, co-workers, and every Edmontonian, so they can make their voices heard too.
- There is plenty going on at City Hall this week, starting with the Agenda Review Committee meeting at 9:00 am on Tuesday, followed by a City Council meeting a little later in the morning, at 9:30 am. Council will cover rental licenses for basement suites, garage suites, and short term rentals, a Transit Safety and Security Interim Update, and a Spring General Repealing Bylaw, which corrects errors and removes dozens of bylaws that no longer are applicable.
- On Wednesday, at 9:30 am, there will be a City Manager and City Auditor Performance Evaluation Committee meeting which will consider a private verbal report. Later in the day, at 1:30 pm, there will be a City Council Public Hearing to discuss 15 minor zoning amendments.
- At 9:30 am on Thursday, there will be an Audit Selection Committee meeting to discuss recruitment and candidate shortlisting. This will be done in-camera. On Friday, there is time scheduled at 9:30 am for the continuation of Tuesday’s City Council meeting should it not wrap up as scheduled. Also on Friday, there will be a City Council Non Regular meeting at 2:00 pm to consider the reports of the Anti-Racism Advisory Committee, the Women’s Advocacy Voice of Edmonton Committee, and the City of Edmonton Youth Council.
I receive THIS WEEK IN EDMONTON posts from Common Sense Edmonton. On Saturday I attended Common Sense Edmonton' s Pints & Politics gathering and met a number of their supporters. Common Sense Edmonton is a grass roots organization that depends on volunteer support so if that is of interest to you contact them.
- It’s a full week at City Hall, starting with a City Council meeting this morning at 9:30 am. There’s a large agenda, including both an operating and capital financial update. Edmonton is also proposing it be allowed to levy a special tax to replace alley lighting. How do we not have money for street lamps when our operational budget is $3 billion dollars?
- Tuesday, at 9:30 am, the City Manager and City Auditor Performance Evaluation Committee will meet to receive a consultant's update. Afterwards, at 1:30 pm, there will be a City Council Public Hearing to discuss the usual zoning amendments. City Council will continue on Wednesday at 9:30 am should it not conclude on Monday. Finally, on Wednesday at 1:30 pm, there will be a non-regular meeting of the Community and Public Services Committee to discuss appointments to various boards and commissions.
- On Thursday, the Urban Planning Committee is set to meet at 9:30 am to discuss memberships of boards and commissions. On Friday, there are three meetings. At 9:30 am, the Audit Committee will present a few audits, after which the Audit Selection Committee will meet from 11:30 am to 12:00 pm to discuss Audit Committee membership and recruitment, and finally, there will be a non-regular meeting of the Executive Committee to discuss appointments to its boards and commissions.
We're hosting our second ever in-person event on Saturday, March 12.
Yes, you read that right, a real, live, in-person event!
We had been hoping to be able to host more events since our inaugural event last summer, but as you may have noticed, certain issues beyond our control conspired against our plan.
Anyways, we're organizing some casual drinks this weekend and we'd love to see you there.
Where: The Transit Hotel Smokehouse and BBQ (12720 Fort Road) in the Private Dining Room.
When: Saturday, March 12th from 5:00pm – 8:00 pm.
Feel free to arrive/leave anytime during that window as there's no formal agenda, just a chance to get together with like-minded Edmontonians, meet some of the Common Sense Edmonton team, and chat about municipal, provincial, and/or federal politics.
The Transit Hotel has also said that if anyone wishes to stay past 8:00 pm, that’s fine too.
Please send us an email (edmonton@commonsensealberta.ca) or RSVP on Facebook if you're planning to attend, so we can have a rough idea of numbers.
Hope to see you on Saturday!
#CommonSenseEdmonton, #municipalpolitics, #provincialpolitics, #federalpolitics, #TransitHotelSmokehouse