policyenthusiast
Active Member
Maybe Mayor Gandam will run for provincial office to work on undoing some of the changes over the past couple years. Every provincial headline seems to read "GoA passes law, Alberta Municipalities hates it" lately.
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- Thread starter Airboy
- Start date
TAS
Senior Member
Frustrating that 85% of delegates including 1,000 Alberta mayors and councillors that want to keep electronic vote tabulators because of less expense and better efficiency are ignored by Smith to appease her conspiracy theorists.
Will end up costing millions unnecessarily as municipalities are saying there isn't a problem.
But people also say cutting the grants to Edmonton in lieu of taxes by 50% since 2019 is minor even though it has now totalled $90 million and counting.
Finally, interesting that Sohi says manual vote counting will cost Edmonton $2.6 million while Gondek says initial estimates in Calgary are $1.3 million. What gives?
HappyJazzz
New Member
Mayor Gundam?!?! Hot damn, we may finally have a solution to the crime problem!!
policyenthusiast
Active Member
SarcasticMarmot
Active Member
Greenspace
Senior Member
A good read - Agenda Item 7.1 'Fiscal Gap' report
pub-edmonton.escribemeetings.com
Essentially, we have no money but spells out in detail what the financial problems are, many made by Council or legislative constraints or whatnot.
Capital and Operating Funding Shortfall Analysis - Executive Committee - October 09, 2024
Essentially, we have no money but spells out in detail what the financial problems are, many made by Council or legislative constraints or whatnot.
policyenthusiast
Active Member
This is an interesting resource - the City FCS department always puts out great stuff. I had no idea that Council removed the internet debt limit in 2022.A good read - Agenda Item 7.1 'Fiscal Gap' report
Capital and Operating Funding Shortfall Analysis - Executive Committee - October 09, 2024
Essentially, we have no money but spells out in detail what the financial problems are, many made by Council or legislative constraints or whatnot.
TAS
Senior Member
Very interesting report to read indeed.A good read - Agenda Item 7.1 'Fiscal Gap' report
Capital and Operating Funding Shortfall Analysis - Executive Committee - October 09, 2024
Essentially, we have no money but spells out in detail what the financial problems are, many made by Council or legislative constraints or whatnot.
Greenspace
Senior Member
Lots of interesting tidbits, pulled out just one:
"From 2008 to 2022, Edmonton’s non-residential assessment base declined from 72 per cent of the EMRB non-residential base, to 60 per cent. This is in large part due to insufficient real growth of the non-residential tax base. There was an estimated $29.9 billion in real growth from 2010 to 2022, of which the City absorbed only 41 per cent, whereas surrounding municipalities absorbed 59 per cent (inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars). Ideal real growth absorption should be somewhat proximate to the City’s population share (72.8 per cent), as population is one of the primary drivers of the City’s expenditure responsibilities."
"From 2008 to 2022, Edmonton’s non-residential assessment base declined from 72 per cent of the EMRB non-residential base, to 60 per cent. This is in large part due to insufficient real growth of the non-residential tax base. There was an estimated $29.9 billion in real growth from 2010 to 2022, of which the City absorbed only 41 per cent, whereas surrounding municipalities absorbed 59 per cent (inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars). Ideal real growth absorption should be somewhat proximate to the City’s population share (72.8 per cent), as population is one of the primary drivers of the City’s expenditure responsibilities."
TAS
Senior Member
Smith floated the idea today of the province taking over tax collection from all municipalities thereby reducing the size of city administrations doing this work, as one proposed benefit.
Smith pitches Alberta government collecting taxes on behalf of municipalities
Smith suggested the province collecting taxes and rebating them back could allow municipalities to spend the savings on other programs.
edmontonjournal.com
policyenthusiast
Active Member
I have no earthly idea how the province thinks it could keep on top of this. Municipalities are already struggling to collect franchise fees, particularly in the oil & gas industry.Smith floated the idea today of the province taking over tax collection from all municipalities thereby reducing the size of city administrations doing this work, as one proposed benefit.
Smith pitches Alberta government collecting taxes on behalf of municipalities
Smith suggested the province collecting taxes and rebating them back could allow municipalities to spend the savings on other programs.
I imagine the cheers came less from supporting the idea of less influence for municipalities, and more from "thank god, we hate dealing with taxes". The only benefit I can think of off the cuff would be that if assessors worked across a larger area, tax assessments might be more consistent, who knows. The rapidly increasing absorption of both municipal and federal jurisdiction into the Province are worrying.
Greenspace
Senior Member
There are really only two orders of government in Canada, federal and provincial. Municipal governments exist at the leisure of the province through an Act (Municipal Government Act), similar to how they would say set up AHS for example. But my guess is municipal governments would see this as a power grab.
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Gronk!
Senior Member
trevorhayden
Active Member
And yet somehow Albertans keep tolerating her
TAS
Senior Member
So this question about the province refunding the program to compensate cites with government property was brought up at the Alberta Municipalities Conference in Red Deer at the fireside chat with Premier Smith and when it was it had huge applause.
Smith said I know that question was planted by Mayor Sohi because he asks me that question everytime I see him.
Her response?
"Were committed to looking at that ... I need to understand the impact it's having on each community."
And she then asked for more information from the municipalities on the impact it's having and to provide that to the government. She noted the government is going through its budget priorities this fall.
Nenshi also spoke at the event and said fully restoring this funding, which impacts Edmonton the most, is an easy promise and priority he will make as well as allowing cities to decide how they want to count their ballots in muncipal elections. Both those promises went over well with the attendees.