Edmonton Minute: Climate Strategy, Ambulance Services, and Higher Property Taxes

Edmonton Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Edmonton politics

This Week In Edmonton:

• The week at City Hall begins with a meeting of the Audit Committee this morning at 9:30 am. There are a series of public reports on the agenda, including the City of Edmonton’s 2023 Consolidated Financial Statements, an Environmental and Climate Governance Audit (more on this below!), the Blatchford Development Performance Management Audit, and the KPMG - 2023 Audit Findings Report.
  
  
• There will be a meeting of the Agenda Review Committee on Tuesday at 8:30 am, followed by 9:30 am non-regular meetings of the Executive Committee and the Urban Planning Committee. Much of the latter two meetings will be held in camera (in secret) to discuss recruitment to Boards and Committees.
  
  
• On Wednesday, at 9:30 am, there will be a non-regular meeting of the Community and Public Services Committee. Similar to the two above meetings, this meeting is also mostly in-camera, and the agenda is dominated by recruitment to Boards and Committees. If the meeting doesn’t wrap up on time, there will be a continuation on Friday at 1:30 pm.

Last Week In Edmonton:

• City Administration released a report that recommended property taxes rise by 8.7% for 2024, an increase of 2.1% over and above the initial 6.6% per cent hike Council approved in December. The City says recent labour settlements are contributing to the spike, and that the increase is needed just to maintain services such as transit, snow clearing, and recreation at their current price points. The bad news doesn’t stop there however, as the City's use of reserves to cover a $40 million deficit means that the account is now well below where it should be - meaning property taxes will have to rise even further.
  
  
• An audit report highlighted several issues with the City’s climate strategy. Shocking, we know! According to the report, the City's ​​Environment and Climate Resilience Team (which has grown from 3 to 22 staff!) does not have effective methods for measuring progress, has not implemented any methods to measure success, isn't collecting data in an efficient way for informed decision-making, and hasn’t created climate-related training for City departments. Administration has issued a response noting that the issues are being addressed, but that full implementation of the reports’ findings “will require transformational change across the organization”.
  
  
• The Alberta government announced new contracts for private ambulance services in Edmonton and Calgary. In Edmonton, a contract was awarded to Associated Ambulance and Services (Whitecourt) Ltd. to facilitate the transfer of non-emergency patients between healthcare facilities within the city, addressing the high volume of non-urgent transfers that occur annually. Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said that this initiative aims to ensure ample availability of ambulances and paramedics for responding to emergency calls in Edmonton and surrounding areas. This contract will introduce 26 new EMS resources to Edmonton, with implementation starting in June and July, and full operation expected later this year.

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