The City of Edmonton is preparing to make budget adjustments

As city council prepares for budget talks – and next year’s property tax increase – local business groups say they’re here to help address Edmonton’s deteriorating finances.

The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce (ECC), the Building Owners and Managers Association of Edmonton (BOMA) and the Commercial Real Estate Development Association met with council on Wednesday.

“Edmonton is at a crossroads with proposed property tax increases of 8.1% in 2025 and 6.3% in 2026, and the financial burden on families, citizens and businesses is becoming unsustainable,” he said ECC President and CEO Doug Griffiths.

“They threaten our city’s competitiveness and place an undue burden on families and businesses.”

The group said it had presented the city with “feasible” ways to improve the city’s financial situation. These include cuts to non-essential services, although the group declined to give details, as well as a significant cash injection for the city centre.

“Every dollar invested in downtown development generates up to $3 in new economic activity. A thriving downtown is not just about aesthetics, but also about economic returns,” Griffiths said.

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi responded to the recommendations, saying the city will not stop building recreation centers and other facilities that improve Edmonton’s “quality of life” – but he agrees changes need to be made.

“We need to build them better,” he added. “We need to build them profitably and in such a way that they function well and are sustainable in the long term,” Sohi said.

He said the city is focusing on essential services – such as housing, transportation and public safety – in which the ECC has previously called for additional investment.

“They are also asking us to invest close to a billion dollars in the city center, which we do not have,” Sohi said.

“If they want us to be disciplined, and we are, they also need to stop asking for additional investment in areas that are not relevant right now.”

The group said it is also calling on the city to review infrastructure requirements and find out why projects in Edmonton cost so much.

“Our fire stations cost $27 million while they cost about six or seven across the line in Leduc County,” Griffiths said. “It doesn’t mean we can’t have nice things, but there are limits.”

A report presented to council Wednesday identified time and escalation as the biggest drivers of additional costs for city projects, something that Sohi and Ward pihêsiwin Coun. Both Tim Cartmell agreed that this needed to be changed.

“After subtracting the cost of all the materials and all the labor involved in constructing the building, all the administrative costs should be four to six percent, and it will be 12… that’s the time it takes us to get something shoveled ready,” he said.

One sec report identified several factors behind rising budgets, Cartmell said he did not pinpoint which specific policies were to blame.

He would like to see the budget analyzed in detail to find out what exactly is causing the tax overstatement. Then, he said, the entire system needed an overhaul.

“Over the next few weeks we will be talking about improving, pulling and pushing, and if we reduce the percentage increase by a few percent, we will call ourselves heroes and go home for Christmas.

“It won’t work here, that’s not the kind of fix we need.”

Two weeks of budget talks will begin on Monday.