On the agenda: User fees, buses, and Blatchford

This week, councillors are set to discuss user fees, the city's aging bus fleet, and Blatchford's capital budget.

There is a community and public services committee meeting on May 11, an urban planning committee meeting on May 12, an executive committee meeting on May 13, and a utility committee meeting on May 15.

Here are some key items on the agenda:

• A proposed policy would set user fees for city services to achieve pre-established cost recovery targets. A report to be presented to executive committee said the city's non-tax revenues have not been keeping pace with the rate of expenditure growth, requiring higher property tax increases to maintain a balanced budget. The city also doesn't have a consistent approach for determining user fees, the report said. The policy will be presented alongside the 2027-2030 operating budget in the fall. If approved, administration will implement a policy for all user fees and then repeal existing policies for recreation user fees and transit fares. The approach doesn't necessarily mean that the full cost of services will be covered by such fees, the city said.
• Administration laid out three options to renew the city's aging bus fleet in a report to be presented to urban planning committee. If council chooses not to replace any buses and spend only $42.4 million to refurbish part of the fleet, there could be a reduction of up to 331,000 annual service hours, the report said. The second option is to spend $186.9 million to replace 100 buses over the four-year budget cycle, which administration said is the minimum investment to avoid service reductions. The third option would see the city spend $386.9 million to replace 300 buses over four years, which would eliminate the need for some refurbishment work. Even if council chooses a moderate level of replacement, more than half of the conventional fleet will be over 20 years old in the next four years, two years past the ideal retirement age.
• Administration will ask utility committee to increase the budget for the distribution piping system in Blatchford. The neighbourhood is developing faster than the original forecast, and pipes need to be installed sooner than expected, said a report to be presented to utility committee. The city said a one-time increase of $7.6 million will not increase the overall capital costs of the district energy system in Blatchford. The report said the faster pace of development is expected to continue.
• The city's policy for supporting vulnerable people during extreme weather events has been updated to reflect feedback from that population, said a report that will be presented to community and public services committee. The "safety first" principle has been expanded to include psychological and cultural safety, and the "connected" principle has been shifted to "integrated" to emphasize that municipal supports exist within a broad social service system. A new procedure to support the policy introduces clearer articulation of roles and responsibilities. The new policy requires council approval.

Here are some more key items:

• Administration has created UP-Lift, a plan aimed at making recreation spaces equitable and inclusive. Part of the plan involves implementing an equitable allotment and allocation model that the city said will ensure equity when assigning booking times and locations for gyms, arenas, sports, and fields.
• Administration entered into 213 agreements valued over $250,000 in 2025, with a total value of nearly $1.5 billion, according to an annual update on its delegation of authority. The report said 87% of agreements resulted from a competitive procurement process.
• The performance of the city's investments ranged from 3.3% to 15.4% in 2025, the investment committee's annual report said. The Ed Tel Endowment Fund paid $48 million in dividends to the city and ended the year at an all-time high market value of $1.2 billion. Council will be asked to approve an updated investment policy in the summer.
• Utility committee will be asked to approve a $7.84-million increase to the waste services capital budget to ensure administration can order 17 waste collection vehicles that are needed over the next four years. Administration said it is asking ahead of the four-year budget deliberations in the fall for fear of delays in acquiring new vehicles. Supply chain issues and geopolitical volatility mean that it can take between 12 and 18 months for vehicles to be put into service following procurement.
• Executive committee is set to make a recommendation on designating the North Park in Windsor Park as a municipal historic resource. If approved by council, the park's renovation would be eligible for up to $75,000. Kyrstie Green, president of the Windsor Park Community League, told Taproot the park is used by a wide range of people — not just Windsor Park residents, but also university students and other visitors who play spikeball and badminton, ride bikes, and have picnics on the great lawn. "Given the number of units coming into Windsor Park and all that conversation that's going on at the moment, this is a really great space for everybody in the community to use," she said.

And here are updates on some items we told you about last week:

• Council voted unanimously and without debate to approve a rezoning application at 13640 142 Street NW to allow for a six-storey residential building, 23 metres away from an active CN Rail right-of-way.
• Council voted unanimously (with Coun. Anne Stevenson absent) to approve a rezoning application that allows a 25-storey building at 117 Street NW and 87 Avenue NW in Windsor Park. Several councillors said the location was suitable because it's close to the University of Alberta and along an arterial roadway. Some residents voiced their opposition, saying the building will cast shadows and cause parking and traffic congestion.
• Council voted unanimously to approve a rezoning application that facilitates the construction of a school in Henderson Estates.
• Council voted 9-4 to approve a rezoning application in Parkview to allow for a mixed-use development.

Meetings stream live on YouTube on the Chamber channel and River Valley Room channel.

For more on the Windsor Park rezoning, as well as Mayor Andrew Knack's thoughts on what he's heard at budget engagement sessions, listen to Episode 355 of Speaking Municipally.