City council continues debating spending, cuts in annual budget

Edmonton's new city council is deciding what to keep and what to cut from the upcoming budget. CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson has the latest.

From road repairs to new buses and peace officers, Edmonton’s city council is digging into the details of the budget in their second of four scheduled days of talks for it this week.

City councillors are now debating what to keep and what to cut, decisions that will determine how much more Edmonton property owners will pay in taxes next year.

The first decision they made was to go ahead with tearing down the outdoor Argyll Velodrome, as while deferring that demo could have saved the city about $3 million next year, the costs to do it would only continue to rise each year.

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Karen Principe, councillor for the northside Ward tastawiyiniwak, said Tuesday the demolition is something she “saw as an opportunity to see a decrease in the tax levy.”

Warn Naokta Isga’s Reed Clarke said he didn’t “want to be going into the next budget cycle with this on the books, knowing that we have to do it at some point.”

That’s the type of debate councillors are having on dozens of budget items as they look to trim the proposed 6.4-per-cent property tax increase for 2026.

Along with the velodrome demolition, they rejected several cuts on the capital side of the ledger today, electing to keep the $2 million for new bike racks on city buses and the $7 million for a new transit control centre.

In all, city councillors proposed $31 million in new spending on capital projects and $14 million in cuts.

On the operating side, there were more pitches for spending than cuts.

That includes a one-time $11-million payment to city tourism and event manager Explore Edmonton.

Mayor Andrew Knack admits it’s a lot of money, but he believes it’s an investment.

“We are seeing a $29 return for every dollar we put in (to Explore Edmonton), so when we talk about economic development, when we talk about boosting our local economy, that’s the type of investment I think people can easily get behind,” Knack said.

A decision on that funding will likely happen Wednesday.

City council has approved $25 million in new spending on 25 new buses to replace the on-demand bus service in areas that have outgrown it.

That money won’t be on the books until 2027, so it won’t affect the tax increase for next year.

“At a time where more people are moving to our communities who want to be able to have those quick, easy, and reliable ways to get to work, get to school, get to job interviews, investing in our public transit systems, (this is) an important part of that,” Ward Metis Coun. Ashley Salvador said.

One of the last decisions council made before breaking for the day was a proposal by Erin Rutherford, councillor for northside Ward Anirniq.

She was asking for $270,000 to design three playgrounds across the city, which council rejected.

They’ll pick up again tomorrow morning and have until Thursday to set a final tax increase.