EDMONTON BUDGET FINALIZED - Here's The Details

City Council has finalized Edmonton's 2026 budget - and despite months of warnings from residents, they increased the property tax hike beyond what was originally presented.

The originally expected 6.4% increase was bumped up to 6.9%!

The City's total budget has now reached $6 billion, with a $3.93-billion operating budget and a $2.3-billion capital budget.

While inflation and population pressures were cited as drivers of this increase, many of the increases were the result of political decisions rather than unavoidable costs.

Here is where some of your money went:

• Explore Edmonton: $11 million in additional ongoing funding to attract major events
• Bus Cleaning: $2.7 million in ongoing funding to permanently enhance cleaning on buses
• City Operations: $900 million total, covering transit, road plowing, snow clearing, and other essential services.
• Policing: $628 million to fund Edmonton Police Service operations.
• Bus Purchase: $25.2 million to purchase 25 new buses in high-demand areas

Now, the final tax hike of 6.9% might seem high (and it is!), but - believe it or not - it could have been even worse!

Edmonton’s Financial Stabilization Reserve remains below its minimum target, and Councillor Aaron Paquette proposed a dramatic “rip off the Band-Aid” approach of putting $64.5 million toward restoring the Reserve to its minimum this year.

If his motion had passed, the property tax increase for 2026 would have jumped to over 9%!

Paquette argued this would have allowed the city to have much lower tax increases in future years.

But that's like trying to argue it's a good thing if grocery prices go up by 10% today, instead of going up by 10% in a few years' time.

Thankfully, Council rejected the motion.

Unfortunately, Council also rejected basically every proposal to reduce spending and reduce the tax increase.

Councillor Karen Principe proposed reducing corporate expenditures by $4.7 million, scaling back vandalism control efforts to shave off $2.1 million, and using more of the EPCOR dividend to lower the tax hike by $5 million.

In the end, the budget passed 11-2, with Councillors Michael Elliott and Karen Principe opposed.

In the end, the message is simple - City Hall is continuing to raise taxes and spending faster than ever, without regard for whether Edmontonians can afford to pay.

At Common Sense Edmonton, we track Council decisions, expose wasteful spending, and push for responsible budgeting.

It seems like we will have our work cut out for us over the next four years.