Edmonton Minute: Tax Increase, Hangar Fire, and a Police Audit Denied

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

This Week In Edmonton:

• There will be a meeting of the Community and Public Services Committee this morning at 9:30 am. The Committee will discuss the creation of an Entertainment District on Rice Howard Way, wherein consumption of alcohol would be permitted. The Agenda Review Committee will meet on Tuesday at 8:30 am, followed by a non-regular meeting of City Council at 9:30 am. At the latter meeting, Council will discuss Community Revitalization Levy Rate and Supplementary Levy Rate Bylaws, as well as the 2024 Property Tax and Supplementary Property Tax Bylaw (more on this below!).
  
  
• On Thursday at 9:30 am there will be an Urban Planning Committee meeting. On the agenda is a proposal for Collaborative Highway 2 Roadway Beautification. The City is proposing planting trees along 13 to 15 kilometers of highway in order to support the goal of planting two million new urban trees by 2030. But, a large part of the roadway falls beyond the City’s borders and under provincial jurisdiction. To move forward with a plan, “further work would be required to define the extent of the corridor, the vision for the initiative and establish governance, funding and operating and associated agreements.” Administration will also provide a response to Councillor Rutherford’s October 2023 request for a summary of current licenses issued to e-scooter and e-bike vendors, as well as a summary of the program.
  
  
• On Friday, at 9:30 am, there will be a meeting of the Executive Committee. The Committee will discuss the 2023 Investment Committee Annual Report. The report notes returns ranging from 5% in the Money Market Fund to 11% in the Ed Tel Endowment Fund. The Ed Tel Endowment Fund is the City's largest fund and paid $45 million in dividends to the City in 2023, ending the year with a market value of $938 million. The Committee will also discuss the lease agreement between the City of Edmonton and the Citadel Theatre.

Last Week In Edmonton:

• After a lengthy spring operating budget session Council unanimously approved an 8.9% property tax increase - the highest in more than a decade, and higher than the recent proposal by Administration. Council allocated an additional $2 million for event attraction, $1.56 million for enhanced cleaning in the core, and $516,000 for a snow removal assistance program. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said it wasn’t easy for Council to agree on the “absolutely high number”. Well, it’s not going to be easy for Edmontonians to pay for it either. We’ll have more to say on this soon!
  
  
• Councillor Keren Tang expressed disappointment that the Edmonton Police Commission refused to release the Edmonton Police Service’s auditing priorities. Tang's motion to ask the Commission for the Audit and Program Service Review Plan for 2024 was approved by Council in December 2023, but the request was denied by the Commission. In a letter, the Commission said that the Audit Plan “has traditionally been an inward facing document” and that a “public facing audit program will diminish overall effectiveness.” The Commission said that regular audits are conducted to address internal risks within the organization. Tang said she had wanted to gain a better understanding of the connection between police funding and their performance, particularly given that policing is the City’s largest budget item.
  
  
• A massive fire destroyed Edmonton’s historic Hangar 11. One of the last surviving structures of its type in Canada, the hangar was built in 1942 for the US air force to supply troops during WWII. Police are investigating the fire as suspicious. There were plans for the hangar to be converted into a mixed-use retail and residential space with rooftop patios and gardens. Oddly, Hangar 8 in Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Labrador was burned to the ground a few days earlier.

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