WEEKLY UPDATE - DEC 9
Welcome back to the Weekly Wrap Up! Last week had one big item - our Fall 2025 Budget Adjustment. Through weeks of preparation and days of debate, Council worked hard to deliver the best budget possible during these challenging times.
Throughout 2024, we heard about the significant pressures the City was facing from inflation, growth, and reduced support from the Province. At one point predicted to be at 13%, City staff came forward with a proposed 8.1% budget increase. Over four days of debate, Mayor Sohi helped us work together to find further reductions and we ended up at 6.1%. While not perfect, I feel our budget struck a balance between responding to short term issues without making shortsighted decisions.
A big part of this was avoiding deep cuts to essential services. This approach might seem to save us money in the short term, but inevitably create higher costs in the future. Instead, we maintained services that support affordability for Edmontonians now - including keeping transit fares and rec centre passes low, continuing to invest in affordable housing, and expanded library hours. We also found ways to invest in long term economic strategies that will keep Edmonton thriving. This included funding for an industrial action plan, Explore Edmonton’s work, enhanced cleaning in the downtown, and support for business improvement areas.
This property tax increase means that someone with a home worth $450k will pay about $17.50 more per month in property tax in 2025 than they did in 2024. While not without an impact on Edmontonians who are facing a range of rising costs, I believe these collective investments we are making in our community will help us all to thrive now and into the future.
I’m grateful to everyone who filled out my budget survey to share what services are most important to you. The top five were fire rescue, snow and ice control, EPL, neighbourhood renewal, and ETS. I’m pleased we maintained or enhanced each of these areas, among many more!
That’s all for last week! I’ll be back next week for the last wrap up of 2024. Until then, I hope you are all enjoying getting into the holiday season!
