Edmonton Minute: School Funding, Transit Ridership, and City Budget Tracking

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

This Week In Edmonton:

• This morning, from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm, the Community and Public Services Committee will discuss several items, including an amendment to the Fire Rescue Services Bylaw that involves fireworks, a report on an Urban Reserve Strategy with Bigstone Cree Nation, a report on snow and ice removal, and a Homelessness and Encampment Response Strategy. On Tuesday, at 9:00 am, there will be an Agenda Review Committee meeting, followed at 9:30 am by an Urban Planning Committee meeting that will discuss several public reports including the Active and Public Transportation - Safety, Accessibility and Equity report.
  
  
• On Wednesday, from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm, there will be an Executive Committee meeting. The Committee will discuss several reports, including a report on the approval of a land purchase in Heritage Valley, and a bylaw to designate the Canada Permanent Building as a Municipal Historic Resource. From 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm, there will be a Non-Regular City Council meeting to consider several committee annual reports and 2022 work plans.
  
  
• Finally, on Thursday, there will be a Special City Council meeting from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm to discuss the Edmonton Police Commission, followed at 1:30 pm by a Non-Regular City Council meeting that will run until 5:00 pm, to will consider several property tax rate bylaws.

Last Week In Edmonton:

• The Chair of the Edmonton Public Schools’ Board of Trustees said a “tough budget” will make things challenging in the upcoming year. The Board's operating budget amounts to around $1.226 billion with $10.1 million from the reserve fund supplementing the allocation from the Province. Board members said funding is not keeping pace with increased enrollment and leaves 1,700 students unfunded.
  
  
• The City debated its Spring 2022 budget adjustment and voted to pass the relatively minor adjustment. We’ve been hard at work tracking budgets all the way back to 2020, and trust us, keeping an eye on the City budget is far from an easy task as the City deliberately buries the details as much as possible. We'll have a report ready for you on it all very soon, so stay tuned to your inbox!
  
  
• Council directed City Administration to look at ways of increasing transit ridership and revenue. Most of the current suggestions presented in an interim report suggested tax hikes of various types such as hotel room surcharges, use of community revitalization levies, and adjustments to how properties are taxed based on their proximity to public transit infrastructure.

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