Breadcrumb Trail Links
Published Nov 27, 2023 • Last updated 15 minutes ago • 4 minute read
Edmonton city hall on Oct. 16, 2023. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia, file
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Edmonton city council is expected Monday to finalize next year’s capital budget — which pays for infrastructure — that will add funds to renew aging buildings and roads, repair Rogers Place, renew police equipment and IT, and add money for new diesel buses in 2025.
Debates on the operating budget are set to start Monday and the entirety of the city’s 2024 budget could be finalized by Wednesday. Edmonton faces a potential 7.09 per cent tax increase next year if the financial plans drafted by city staff are accepted unchanged.
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Council members pitched five amendments to the capital budget Wednesday with three from Coun. Jennifer Rice left to discuss. Apart from $15.8 million for new buses, city councillors are likely to pass the capital budget unchanged from the draft.
The operating budget comes next. Services and other ongoing costs such as wages included in this budget are the primary drivers of the city’s tax rates.
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi has indicated he will table a list of additions or subtractions, similar to the 16-part omnibus amendment he put forward last year which passed successfully.
20 diesel buses
Edmonton is set to pay $15.8 million to expand the city’s bus fleet in 2025.
While the city already plans to spend $4.7 million for bus replacements between 2023 and 2026, this money is for something different — 20 new diesel buses to increase bus service.
When introducing this amendment last Wednesday, Sohi said this money will allow the city to add a significant amount of transit service and repurpose some on-demand buses.
“Bus service has been lacking and we need to catch up, and we need to make sure people have access to good, reliable, public transit service throughout the city,” the mayor said.
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To do this, however, council will also need to boost Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) funding in the operating budget to pay for the extra hours. This comes as three-quarters of the city’s 60-bus electric fleet is out of commission.
Rogers Place repairs, road and neighbourhood renewal
The budget city administrators have prepared adds $80.9 million to Edmonton’s capital budget.
Renovations at Rogers Place arena are included. Tax dollars wouldn’t be used for this item, however — the city’s portion comes from $13.7 million collected through ticket surcharges as part of the 2013 agreement with Edmonton Arena Corp., owned by Katz Group.
Rogers Place needs repairs or upgrades to the building envelope, including exterior enclosures and roofing, electrical systems, mechanical systems including HVAC and plumbing, structural issues, elevators and escalators, and parking surfaces and ramps, according to the budget profile. Construction is set to begin in 2025.
Funds for road repair are also added including 132 Avenue from Fort Road to 97 Street ($52.9 million), 86 Street from 51 Avenue to 63 Avenue ($13.9 million), 95 Avenue from 163 Street to 170 Street ($13.4 million), Whitemud Drive around Anthony Henday Drive ($6.2 million), and 97 Street from 51 Avenue to 63 Avenue ($5.2 million). Some of this funding includes dollars from other levels of government.
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Neighbourhoods slated for renewal in this budget include Boyle Street ($35 million), Meyokumin ($34.5 million), Gariepy ($30.9), and Hairsine ($25 million). The Beverley Heights, Allendale and Strathearn neighbourhoods are on the books for alley renewal.
Funding to fix ‘significant’ risks
The draft capital budget sets aside $15.3 million to pay for projects with “significant” risks, including money for police.
Budget documents show three projects ranked 9/10 on a risk scale which increases in severity — $4.7 million to upgrade cellular service in LRT tunnels, $4.5 million to replace police radios, and $1.3 million for police equipment including body armour.
The city determines a score of nine when the risk is “disastrous” and “very likely,” or “severe” and “imminent.” The worst-case scenario for this ranking means there is a “disastrous” risk that would put “lives or livelihood” of Edmontonians in danger because of problems in critical areas within one year if action isn’t taken.
Two items are rated 8/10 for risk — $1.5 million for police IT including software, records and “intelligence systems;” and $3.3 million for security and telecom hardware. A score of eight means the risk is either disastrous and likely, severe and very likely, or substantial and imminent.
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Edmonton Police Commission chairman Erick Ambtman, speaking to reporters last week, said city council already paid for one of several years’ worth of funding last year but the Edmonton Police Service still needs the rest.
“You want your police service to be wearing body armour, (there are) radios that are at the end of their lifecycle,” he said. “If they can’t use (Microsoft) Word, it’s kind of goofy to not have your police service doing basic things like turning on a computer and entering data.”
Demolish and build affordable housing
Adding another $22.9 million to build 63 units of supportive housing in Holyrood — also funded by the federal and provincial government — is also on the books.
Demolishing a 70-unit Civida townhome complex in the Petrolia neighbourhood which “cannot be occupied due to structural issues,” and preparing it for redevelopment, is also expected to cost the city $5.9 million over two years.
An annual report from Civida shows 68 households were displaced in 2022 because of the building’s “structural issues” and were placed in other Civida-owned or private market homes with rental assistance.
@laurby
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