Though city council's fall budget adjustment resulted in a 6.1% increase to property taxes rather than the 8.1% increase administration had proposed, the reduction was created through funding shuffles rather than big culls, co-hosts Mack Male and Troy Pavlek said on Episode 288 of Speaking Municipally.
The co-hosts zeroed in on the Yellowhead Trail project, discussion on bike lanes, and who will manage Edmonton's tourism assets in their recap of council's budget adjustment deliberations, which wrapped on Dec. 5.
Yellowhead Trail conversion funds MIA
Both Male and Pavlek noted the ongoing conversion of Yellowhead Trail into a freeway is $105 million over budget, adding a significant financial burden on the city, but there's political will to persevere — even though how remains a mystery.
"As it stands, Edmonton is on the hook for another $105 million for the Yellowhead freeway conversion project," Pavlek said. "It's not quite clear to me how or where this money is going to come from, just that the city is on hook for it, and no one at the table seems to be entertaining the idea of not paying for it."
Capital budget not touched much
Male said the capital budget experienced only "minor changes" during council's adjustment. One increase to spending was for turf and horticulture, created through an omnibus motion that Mayor Amarjeet Sohi put forward. One proposed decrease, put forward by Coun. Karen Principe, was to slash $67 million from the $100 million approved for the active transportation network expansion. That motion failed 4-7.
Still, Coun. Erin Rutherford was one of the four who voted in favour of this motion, and that surprised Pavlek. "The only people that are going to remember this are cyclists who saw Erin Rutherford say 'We don't need to build any more bike lanes, and we don't need to connect our infrastructure,' and that's just going to hurt her," he said. "It's going to encourage someone, I'm sure, on the left to say she's vulnerable (to a left-leaning candidate during the 2025 municipal election)."
Explore Edmonton gets some help
On operations, council decided to increase Explore Edmonton's budget through "one time" funding of $4.7 million. The city's destination marketing organization had requested $6 million in 2025, in addition to its annual $11.7 million funding. The request follows council providing the organization another "one-time" installment of $6 million in February.
The co-hosts said the tourism body has asked for its base budget to expand because they have weathered budget cuts while adding responsibilities that once were performed by Northlands. Explore Edmonton manages the Edmonton EXPO Centre and the Edmonton Convention Centre, as well as organizing large gatherings such as KDays and Farmfair International, plus other development duties.
"They're basically saying: 'Give us more money, or we can't do everything. We've got to either not operate the convention centres, or we can't do these other events,'" Pavlek said. "Their argument is: 'You wouldn't be able to do that as effectively as we do, City of Edmonton.'"
The Dec. 6 episode of Taproot's civic affairs podcast also wades into Coun. Jennifer Rice's use of council's time during the budget adjustments, downtown optimization, photo radar, and more. Plus, it features a regular update from Taproot's newsroom by managing editor, Tim Querengesser. Find all the ways to listen to and subscribe to Speaking Municipally, which comes out most Fridays, right here.