City hall received more than 2,000 calls Monday from frustrated residents as the first tax assessments began to arrive in the mail, prompting them to ask for a brief ban on phone calls until the anger subsides.
Residents living in Rundle Heights are expected to be hit the hardest by the tax increase, with most homeowners seeing a 25.6 per cent jump on their current bills.
While the average tax increase across the city is just 7.5 per cent, only those living in south and northeast Edmonton will likely see their property tax increase on top of that total fall in the single digits.
Rundle Heights homeowner Joe Coufar said he was surprised when his tax bill arrived.
"We found it quite a bit raised," he said. "We're retired. It's going to be hard to cope with. It's like, I would say, at least 25 per cent more."
The city has asked people to call back next week when the call volume is expected to subside. In the meantime, residents are asked to go on the city's website.
City officials report they received 1,384 calls from residents complaining about their taxes Monday. The volume was so high they were forced to let another 773 calls go unanswered.
Mayor Stephen Mandel skirted away from pointing fingers at his city council Tuesday, placing much of the blame in the province's assessment system.
"If your apartment or house or condo goes up in value we have no choice but to assign that value to it," he said. "We'd probably like to do it a little different but that's the mandate from the province."
But the explanation left one Rundle Heights homeowner fuming.
"I bet you 80 per cent of the people are going to complain," he said. "It's going to so busy it's unreal."
With files from Scott Roberts
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