Edmonton mayor on property taxes, new police leadership and more in ‘busy 2024’

Edmonton mayor Amarjeet Sohi discusses Edmonton’s upcoming property tax hike, a plan for the province to pay its property taxes, and whether he’ll be seeking re-election with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Members of Edmonton city council decided this December to pass a property tax increase of 6.1 per cent. The decision came after four days of budget deliberations and it’s one some councillors say is the best they could do in challenging times.

Let's start on Edmonton's financial footing. What kind of sacrifices did council need to make to bring down that tax hike to 6.1 per cent, and what risks come with that?

Amarjeet Sohi: We all know Edmontonians have been continuing to struggle with affordability. The house prices, the mortgage costs, the rental costs, the food prices, are all impacting people's ability to continue to sustain the good quality of life that that they want.

I also acknowledge that Edmontonians heavily rely on municipal services to move around the city, and municipal services to make their living affordable - such as public transit, recreational facilities, libraries and others that we provide.

It's always a difficult balance around managing property tax increases - how we minimize them, while at the same time continuing to protect and enhance and improve core municipal services. That's what we have tried to do in this budget.

Administration was proposing 13 per cent tax increase. That was completely unacceptable for me and council. We sent them back, saying: do better. And they did. They brought back 8.1 per cent and that was high as well. I worked with the administration and worked with my council colleagues to bring that down to 6.1 per cent.

I see the potential that come April - when we actually set the proper mill rate, the final mill rate - I am hopeful that the province will step up and give us the money that is owed to Edmontonians in the form of property taxes that they have not paid. If that happens - when that happens - we can actually further reduce the property taxes to 5.3 per cent.

If the province pays us the money that's owed since 2019, we can eliminate our entire Rainy Day Fund deficit. I'm hopeful that those conversations that are having with the premier and the ministers will allow us to further reduce property taxes before we set the final mill rate.

MH: The last time we spoke, the city had just launched its Fair Compensation Campaign - calling for exactly that. I take it then you're pretty confident that money will come through.

SH: Absolutely. My last meeting with Premier Smith was about a month ago, and I was assured by her and her staff that this is something they understand - that Edmonton is being disproportionately impacted by the reduction in grants in lieu of property taxes.

We have seen a 50 per cent reduction that meant $80 million loss of revenue for the city since 2019, and ongoing is close to $15 million.

The premier has committed to me that during the budget that they will table in February, that they want to correct this inequity. I look forward to that - and if that happens I committed to the premier that we will use that money to lower property taxes to make people's living more affordable.

MH: Let's shift gears a bit. Edmonton needs a new police chief with Dale McPhee migrating to new employment in support of the provincial government.

What kind of turning point do you expect this to represent in how your city is policed moving forward?

AS: I am actually looking forward to 2025, when we will have new commission members coming on board, and the exciting opportunity to hire a new police chief.

I'm very hopeful. I have raised this with commission members as well that there should be a robust engagement process with city council about what kind of chief we need, and also robust conversation with Edmontonians about what their expectations are about the new police chief - because public safety remains top of mind issue for many, many, many Edmontonians.

Yes, we have seen crime overall crime decline in Edmonton. We have seen a 21 per cent decline in crime on transit properties, bus service and LRT station. But we have a long, long way to go. Crime severity continues to be a concern, and I look forward to the kind of leadership that we need to take us to the next level, next stage, where we can actually make Edmonton the safest city it has the potential to be.

By having very dynamic leadership at the police service that will continue to invest in public safety, and continue to inspire police officers to give their best - as they do now. It's a very, very important undertaking. I look forward to that conversation with the commission.

MH: Speaking of leadership - Mayor Gondek, your counterpart down the QE2 intends to seek re-election.

You've yet to announce where you stand on pursuing a second term. What are you weighing ahead of making that decision?

AS: 2024 has been very, very busy here. We had a lot of work to accomplish, which we have - including fixing the budget and minimizing the property tax increases. At the same time, we continue to invest in core municipal services, make them better, and create economic growth opportunities for Edmonton to have decent, well paying, middle class jobs and grow businesses and be prosperous. So it was a very, very busy 2024.

During the break, I'm going to sit down with my family and have that conversation and make my decision in early 2025 whether I want to run or not run.

I love my job. I love my city. It's an exciting time, and we are doing some good work in the areas that we are responsible for. At the same time we’re asking other partners to step up to unlock the potential of Edmontonians to live the live the best life that they can. So I'll make that decision when that time comes in early 2025.

MH: On that point of partnership, I have one last question for you.

You've said publicly in recent months you’re fed up with changes the Smith government is making to local elections. That Bill 20 is - in your words - a bad, bad piece of legislation.

To what degree do you expect those changes to influence the outcome next October?

AS: We know that Bill 20 introduced by the provincial government really favors the creation of political parties by giving political parties the financial advantage - where they can spend three times more than an independent candidate can spend. As well, the ability of organizational strength that a party brings because of those legislative changes.

I think that's something that I have to weigh in in my decision, but we will see what I hear. I’ll engage with some of the experts and the team that we assembled last time, and we'll have those conversation and we'll make that final decision sometime early next year.