Budget talks are now underway at Edmonton City Hall, and city council says its focus is to reduce the proposed tax hike. Right now, property taxes are set to increase close to six-and-a-half per cent Councillors have been quick to remind us that 2026 is the final year of a four-year budget, which means they have limited flexibility to add spending or make more cuts. To begin budget talks on Monday, the city’s chief financial officer, Stacey Padbury, had words of warning for council, saying that “without spending discipline, the problems will compound.” “I’ve already talked about the challenges of delivering services in a high-cost environment and the structural budget variances that we’ve been working to rectify,” Padbury told council during Day 1 of four devoted to debating the budget. “Fixing these issues means making real decisions about what services you want less of and honest conversations about how you’ll fund new services.” City bureaucrats say the proposed 6.4-per-cent tax increase essentially amounts to “treading water,” maintaining existing services in the face of rising labour and material costs. That includes the basics, including police and fire services, snow clearing, transit, recreation and waste collection. There is a projected surplus for 2025. That $16 million will begin to refill the city’s rainy day reserve, which city council dipped into last year to minimize tax pain. Mayor Andrew Knack says refilling that reserve, plus accommodating population growth and renewing aging infrastructure, has put the city in a financial bind. Still, he says city council is looking to maintain or lower next year’s tax increase. “At the end of the day, we are looking to protect our core services, we are looking to create financial stability for the City of Edmonton’s ongoing operations,” he said. “There is a cost to doing that, as well as keeping up with our rapid population growth.” City council is expected to make changes to the budget as the week goes on, but at the proposed 6.4-per-cent increase, the average homeowner will pay an extra $230 in property taxes next year. City councillors will continue to absorb information from various budget presentations before they propose and debate actual changes, although they did pass the utility budget on Monday. For the second year in a row, the cost to residents to have garbage and other waste collected is going down, saving the average homeowner about $16 next year.
