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2023-26 Edmonton Budget

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interestingly enough, 1/3 of the respondents are prepared to accept/anticipate some sort of increase - anticipated at 1.8% - inthe same survey results.

more interesting though is to note that:

(a) many of the residents in the survey don't directly pay property taxes as they rent;

(b) this survey doesn't reflect the opinions of commercial property owners and/or tenants; and

(c) the survey talked about taxes and current service levels with no real opportunity to talk about value received vs amounts paid.
 
Interesting day on the budget deliberations.

Michael Janz put forward a motion to reduce the Edmonton police budget by $11.9 million — the allotted increase in the EPS 2022 budget. He suggests the money be reallocated to initiatives on addressing houselessness, community safety, social services and response programs.

Council voted for increased funding for both the Lewis Farms and Coronation Rec Centres. (Janz was only one to vote against Lewis Farms project).

Coronation is estimated to cost $153 million, up from the original $112 million budget in 2014. The world class velodrome is expected to host international track cycling events. The $283M Lewis Farms, which includes library, district park and meeting spaces, will help the city in its quest for 15 minute communities.

And a budget adjustment motion by Janz to allocate $4.75 million towards active transportation planning and development in various communities (again a step forward in 15min communities) for 2022-23 was passed 13-0. The hope is that will increase city chances to tap into more federal active transportation dollars. Andrew Knack noted that over the past 8 years, the city has spent $19M on bike lanes versus $2.4 billion on roads.

 
It should be noted that there was discussion on Lewis Farms Rec Centre 'being the last of the big box/mega centres' and that they need to look at reinvesting in or replacing aging/dated facilities in mature communities.
I know Cartmell is pushing this alot. There are efficiencies to the big format, but negatives too, namely walkability, distance, car dependency.

But I doubt smaller ones will have pools and facilities anything like what terwillegar, meadows, etc have
 
I think a better model than the smaller neighborhood format would just be master planned communities with rec centers, high schools, shopping, libraries and high density around an LRT stop.

As an old terwillegar resident, the big format rec centers are super nice to have. But you need significant population nearby to make it worthwhile.

Too bad we didn't get on rec center planning way back to align with LRT. Malls and hospitals we at least got linked.
 
Thought I'd start a thread on this since this is going to come up soon.

As I referenced in the Jasper Ave thread, Council is going to face some tough decisions when it comes to new capital dollars in the next budget cycle as I think they will be pretty limited on what they can spend for new dollars assuming their forecast in the previous budget cycle documents holds true for this one. Obviously, there are some major projects that are committed to already, but if there is anything new they should commit to, what should it be? Perhaps the existing projects have long enough timelines that that will satisfy everyone. Thoughts? I think there are definitely those that want certain projects to go ahead, but what will the requirement be from a tax perspective since it looks like there isn't a lot of room on the debt side of things.
 
Was Touch the Water supposed to be something that was funded in this upcoming budget cycle? Because if it was, I don't see this project moving forward for a while as more engagement will be required at least for the Rossdale component.
 
I think we need to categorize based on ROIs in the next 5-10 years. So transit, downtown infrastructure, parks. I hope the bike plan gets going aggressively and I think that pays pretty good dividends. But I can see it not being as highly valued sadly. I think rec centres, pools, etc will be hard to justify rn. New bridges or roads are tough.
 
How about a plan to boost street cleaning and grass cutting. This is sorely needed.
I think there is definitely more room in the operating budget to boost various operations. Flag them with your Councillor, so it at least gets discussed during the debate.
 

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