Municipal Politics

[Greenspace]

The Council has done almost nothing to control spending since coming into office and only blaming the province for it's situation. The missing property tax from the province is like $13m/year. This tax increase is closer to $300m, nice to have but not going to fix anything.

 

[TAS]

The Council has done almost nothing to control spending since coming into office and only blaming the province for it's situation. The missing property tax from the province is like $13m/year. This tax increase is closer to $300m, nice to have but not going to fix anything.

Control spending? Like spending less on roads, police, and admin salaries? Or public transportation?

Where do you see the biggest opportunity to cut spending?

As well, the city already has a huge infrastructure deficit that has been accumulating for years.

We will see what kind of savings the city will come up with over these next few months, though. Will be tough decisions.

I think in being committed to City Plan, as this council generally has, that is meant to set the city up to being a more financially sustainable city in the future.

But I definitely believe the province has failed cities in many ways.

Council heard yesterday that since 2019, when the province cut amount paid to city in lieu of property tax, that the total is $60 million now.

 

[Greenspace]

^There are a lot of services that are not core to running our City. For example, there's a plethora of social service that we do because the province doesn't. So I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but some would argue that's not our responsibility and you can't make the province do it. The province is shortchanging us in many ways, but I've seen no evidence of this Council looking at ways to save money at all. It's all the province's fault.

If this keeps up we will loose all competitive advantage to many other markets. And the tax burden will continue to shift to residential from non if we don't try to attract more business from going to the region.

 

[TAS]

^There are a lot of services that are not core to running our City. For example, there's a plethora of social service that we do because the province doesn't. So I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but some would argue that's not our responsibility and you can't make the province do it. The province is shortchanging us in many ways, but I've seen no evidence of this Council looking at ways to save money at all. It's all the province's fault.

If this keeps up we will loose all competitive advantage to many other markets. And the tax burden will continue to shift to residential from non if we don't try to attract more business from going to the region.

So you say there's a plethora of things the city is doing because the province doesn't. And you say the province is shortchanging us in many ways.

Agreed.

Aside from services the city is providing that should be done by the province, where do you see some cuts outside of that? Or are you thinking primarily the city should cut back on spending on provincial responsibilities?

Some have said the city spent too much on Westend rec centre.

 

[David A]

^There are a lot of services that are not core to running our City. For example, there's a plethora of social service that we do because the province doesn't. So I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but some would argue that's not our responsibility and you can't make the province do it. The province is shortchanging us in many ways, but I've seen no evidence of this Council looking at ways to save money at all. It's all the province's fault.

If this keeps up we will loose all competitive advantage to many other markets. And the tax burden will continue to shift to residential from non if we don't try to attract more business from going to the region.

I agree, in a way the city is enabling the province to neglect things it should be taking responsibility for and its not because the provinces finances are tight and the city's bountiful. In fact quite the opposite.

So the city takes on what it can adequately do, then gets blamed by the province and others for falling short which is both ironic and foolish. It really is time to stop playing this game.

 

[TAS]

At yesterday's council committee meeting businesses along SPR and others impacted by lrt construction were asking for compensation.

During meeting, a rep from art gallery on 106 st and 102 Ave requesting compensation noted the road near the gallery has been torn up and patched up something like 3 times in the last year and was critical of the city for that waste. However when Coun. Paquette followed up with admin on that it was shared that it was Epcor or Atco (I can't remember) who was responsible for that and no costs were spent by the city for that work.

City has its own spending issues, but it tends to also get blamed for things it has nothing to do with.

 

[Greenspace]

^^^Lewis Farms, Yellowhead interchange, etc. $400,000/unit supportive housing that the industry says they can deliver at $250k because of energy efficiency targets the City wants. Do we really need to repair all 3 bridges at once? Just a few examples.

Whether you agree or not, the unions feel they won their negotiations (the people I've spoken with), that's an extra $40m/year. Former city manager wanted to hold a tighter line on that.

I'm not saying saving money is easy, but the attitude from some councillors is why even bother looking at savings, it's the province's fault, and we need every single service we provide. They could at least try.

 

[BASE]

Agreed on if there are pieces the city is currently spending on that are provincial responsibility then make those cuts right off the top. It's certainly a nice to have but doing more harm than good at this point in terms of what it is costing existing Edmontonians or how the city of Edmonton is viewed for affordability in the metro area (Cities, towns, & counties are competing for residents and businesses after all).

Regarding infrastructure deficits if this is the case I think they need to show that very clearly and make a distinct multi year shift away from building new infrastructure into investing in what we currently have.

The increases are so big and flying way above what we are seeing with inflation currently, I just don't think they can be accepted as there is no clear plan to bring them under control. The cuts will need to be painful and ideally most would agree we wouldn't want to see them. Some ideas that need to be considered in my opinion (no expert on the subject but believe in at least making suggestions):

Blatchford - Get out of the business, stop spending on it and sell what can be sold unless they can clearly indicate this is a revenue generator
Fees - Need to look at increasing fees for services like transit (fuel was specifically mentioned as a cost pressure in the article), rec centers and other public facility user fees should also be increased.
Facility Closures - Take a analysis of your worst performing or oldest leisure facility and/or library and make the difficult call to close it. Will have some unhappy folks and doesn't seem fair to pick one but looked at the rec centres the city has and noticed Eastglen leisure centre is a older looking facility and quite close to the newer Commonwealth rec centre. Not a popular thing when considering they are currently building a new rec facility out west but need to deal with the current reality.
Partnerships - We saw the recently announced Booster Juice deal with Terwillegar rec center. Where else can more ad revenue come in (i.e. Edmonton conference center).

 

[edm13]

I know a couple people that work for the city who say they are bombarded with all sorts of courses to take in sensitivity and newsletters for diversity and inclusion and all sorts of other things that were never a thing in the not too distant past. Not saying these things are not important, but they made it sound like there is a whole department working on these things. Perhaps it can be toned down a little or actually just fire people who can’t behave in a decent manner at work, instead of offering them a million different courses in how to be a decent human

 

[MacLac]

I know a couple people that work for the city who say they are bombarded with all sorts of courses to take in sensitivity and newsletters for diversity and inclusion and all sorts of other things that were never a thing in the not too distant past. Not saying these things are not important, but they made it sound like there is a whole department working on these things. Perhaps it can be toned down a little or actually just fire people who can’t behave in a decent manner at work, instead of offering them a million different courses in how to be a decent human

What does this have to do with City expenditures? Btw, all companies are doing this……

 

[edm13]

What does this have to do with City expenditures? Btw, all companies are doing this……

Doesn’t it cost money to run all of this? And yes, as I said, these things are important but the vibe I got from these people is that it is over the top… to the point of turning them off. Both said they delete emails without reading them, as it is overload.

 

[TAS]

Agreed on if there are pieces the city is currently spending on that are provincial responsibility then make those cuts right off the top. It's certainly a nice to have but doing more harm than good at this point in terms of what it is costing existing Edmontonians or how the city of Edmonton is viewed for affordability in the metro area (Cities, towns, & counties are competing for residents and businesses after all).

Regarding infrastructure deficits if this is the case I think they need to show that very clearly and make a distinct multi year shift away from building new infrastructure into investing in what we currently have.

The increases are so big and flying way above what we are seeing with inflation currently, I just don't think they can be accepted as there is no clear plan to bring them under control. The cuts will need to be painful and ideally most would agree we wouldn't want to see them. Some ideas that need to be considered in my opinion (no expert on the subject but believe in at least making suggestions):

Blatchford - Get out of the business, stop spending on it and sell what can be sold unless they can clearly indicate this is a revenue generator
Fees - Need to look at increasing fees for services like transit (fuel was specifically mentioned as a cost pressure in the article), rec centers and other public facility user fees should also be increased.
Facility Closures - Take a analysis of your worst performing or oldest leisure facility and/or library and make the difficult call to close it. Will have some unhappy folks and doesn't seem fair to pick one but looked at the rec centres the city has and noticed Eastglen leisure centre is a older looking facility and quite close to the newer Commonwealth rec centre. Not a popular thing when considering they are currently building a new rec facility out west but need to deal with the current reality.
Partnerships - We saw the recently announced Booster Juice deal with Terwillegar rec center. Where else can more ad revenue come in (i.e. Edmonton conference center).

It's not an easy decision regarding the province and its responsibilities. Maybe you are right.

If city was to draw a line with the province though, would things worsen in terms of the state of homelessness, deaths, safety downtown etc?

Is it going to take more of an ongoing, large public campaign to get the province to take more action? I mean people protesting.

As has been noted before, Edmonton has disproportionate numbes of people in our city living rough, released from jail on a daily basis and other challenges. And we don't get funded appropriately and comparatively.

 

[kcantor]

What does this have to do with City expenditures? Btw, all companies are doing this……

It’s probably not so much the cost of the courses per se but the lost time. My guess is a mere 1.5% reduction in productivity due to staff being away on coursework would more than make up for the projected deficit we’re looking at.

 

[The_Cat]

Also, look at the outlying communities sending people to Edmonton for services.

 

[TAS]

It’s probably not so much the cost of the courses per se but the lost time. My guess is a mere 1.5% reduction in productivity due to staff being away on coursework would more than make up for the projected deficit we’re looking at.

I think working in a culture where you invest in your people and create a more psychologically safe workplace has value in attracting and retaining top talent as well as leading to better productivity.

The city has had issues in terms of its workplace culture so these initiatives, which as noted many companies offer, might be important. They've had reported issues of bullying and more that have been made public. The better the work environment, the better the productivity has been my experience.

Many city workers also must deal with a diverse public and so training like DEI can be valuable in that regard, too.

Investing in mental health training programs have value, too. I actually took a program that was attended by several people from Edmonton Transit. The stories of verbal/emotional abuse they had to endure from the public they were serving was awful - if you can equip people with skills and tactics to better cope with that, it could translate into less stress leaves and time off.