Value For Taxes

Edmonton Has the second highest residential property taxes in the province. The only city in the whole province who beats us in that regard is St. Albert. All one has to do is drive through St. Albert and you know there is something off.

We are simply not getting value for our high taxes. Over this past term property taxes have risen 21.5%. that is one of the highest property tax increases over such a short period of time in our city's history.

There are several aspects to this issue and how I want to address them are listed below.

Residential Property Taxes

Here we have the property taxes that most Edmontonians are likely the most familiar with. It is also likely the one we are most frustrated with.

Our city has become dependent on increasing property taxes instead of making prudent financial choices.

While given the financial situation we find ourselves in I cannot promise a tax decrease. However I do want to do everything within my power as a councilor to stop the yearly increase.

property taxes are making up an ever increasing percentage of the revenue of the city each year. What that means is the city is becoming more and more reliant on property taxes over other sources of revenue.

Your property taxes already make up 59.5% of all revenue the city takes in while the percentage that other sources such as fees, fines, transit ticket sales, and other revenue streams are making up an ever decreasing overall percentage.

Simply put we are spending faster then these other revenue streams can grow and thus are making up the short fall by increasing your property taxes.

Increasing Expenditure and Debt

We have a spending problem and that is no secret. Just how bad the spending problem is can be summed up by taking a quick look at our debt servicing. As of the beginning of 2025 debt repayment made up 10.1% of all city expenditure, it is now above 11%. For context as of 2008 it was less then 1%.

the issue lies mainly with the Capital Expense budget. This is the budget that accounts for all the additional projects in the city. this is not our operating budget. In the 2012 to 2014 budget cycle the total capital budget was 2.9 billion. Today the 2023 to 2026 budget is 10.8 billion and we are already 1.5 billion over budget.

This is where the spending increase is occurring and this is why we are increasing your property taxes and taking out so much debt.

The good news is since the issue is largely on the capital expense side we can solve the problem without attacking core services in the operating budget. We need to exercise fiscal restraint and elect a council with a measure of financial literacy and we should be able to correct course when making the next 2027 to 2030 budget.

Business taxes

While our residential taxes are incredibly high we also need to remember we have the highest business tax rate in the province.

This not only harms our local businesses but also discourages new businesses from moving to Edmonton.

This problem is compounded by the fact we are surrounded by other municipalities who all have lower tax regulations then we do.

We need to create a more welcoming environment for our business community to operate so that we can have a larger tax base to draw from.