'It's not fair to Edmontonians': Mayor wants province to pay up

Edmonton mayor, Amarjeet Sohi, discusses his Fair Compensation Project with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Let's start on that financial impact of Bill 20’s legislative changes adding, I understand, nearly $5 million to the total price tag of the next election in your city, and that includes the cost of hand counting ballots. But overall, why so much?

Amarjeet Sohi: I hear from Edmontonians all the time that they are struggling with their own affordability crisis.

The gas prices are up, the food prices are up, mortgage rates are up, and they want their governments to minimize cost as much as possible.

We, as city council, have been trying to do that ever since I got elected. We cut cost, we absorb additional pressures in the existing budget, and we have to cut more and manage our budget to bring the proposed tax levy down as much as possible.

But here we are, the province is adding another $2.6 million to property tax without any logical or reason because our counting tabulators have been working for two decades.

There have not been any issues whatsoever, we have not received any complaints from Edmontonians, the elections are conducted in a fair, transparent manner, and we don't see the need to change to hand counting the ballots.

This $2.6 million is an unnecessary cost that we could avoid by the province continuing to allow us to use the counting tabulators and conduct the elections in a fair and transparent manner.

That's what we've been asking the province to do. I hope they will come to a logical conclusion that these are unnecessary, avoidable costs.

MH: What has come of calls for the province to pick up the tab on this?

AS: We want them to pick up the cost if they want, and they insist on us, to count the ballots manually instead of through the machines and tabulators, which are very effective, fast and also been proven to be reliable.

We don't see the need for change, but we also need to make sure that we comply with provincial regulations because at the end of the day, we are governed by the Municipal Governance Act and we have to abide by the rules set by the province, even if there's a cost.

We think this cost can be avoided by letting us continue to use the tabulators.

MH: Let's get to your Fair Compensation Project. That's an effort to pressure the province into paying taxes owed to your municipality. Why take it to the level of a public campaign? Could this not have been accomplished in sitting down and talking with the Smith government?

AS: I have been talking to Premier Smith and her cabinet ministers over the last two years and I have raised this issue in every meeting. No Edmontonian can avoid paying their property taxes, but somehow the provincial government only pays the half of the cost of accessing municipal services for provincial buildings.

Prior to 2019 the provincial government used to pay 100 per cent cost of accessing those services, now it’s gone down to 50 per cent. I got a promise from the premier about a year ago to look into it, and here we are, nothing has happened.

I'm glad that they remain open to changing and fully compensating us, but I have not seen any action. That is why it is important that I engage Edmontonians because any time anybody doesn't pay their fair share of taxes, somebody else has to pick up that the gap.

So I think it is not fair to Edmontonians that the province has not paid $80 million of taxes to the city of Edmonton since 2019 and they continue to pay only half, which is a $15 million loss every year that other taxpayers have to pay.

I think that is not fair. What we ask for is reasonable and I am hoping the province will act on it.

MH: Let's say the campaign is a success and the province does pay that bill. What impact does that have on the rate that a local ratepayer would have to submit?

AS: If the province agrees to pay retroactive to 2019, that $80 million will completely eliminate our entire deficit, which means that we don't have to raise property taxes to make up for that deficit.

And going forward, $15 million is about a 1.8 per cent tax levy increase, so we can actually reduce taxes to provide relief to Edmontonians if the province steps up and pays their fair share of the property taxes that they owed.

They also owe that to many other municipalities in Alberta. So this is not just an Edmonton issue, but we are impacted disproportionately because we have the largest number of provincial buildings in our city.

MH: I have to think budget talks are coming up fairly quickly. How challenging do you expect those talks to be this time around?

AS: Absolutely. At this time, we are looking at a 12 per cent property tax increase, which is absolutely unacceptable. So I have been working with our administration, I have been challenging our administration to find efficiencies, reduce expenditures, and we definitely need to continue to be on that path.

My goal is to minimize property tax increases as much as possible, and at the same time, continue to invest in quality public services, to improve public safety, to improve public transit, improve our snow and ice program to continue to invest in the recreational facilities.

We are behind on maintaining our boulevards because that service has been cut and I would like to see more investments in that area. I want to continue to focus on core services and at the same time, reduce expenditures, minimize tax increases.

If the province stops imposing unnecessary costs on us, we can actually do better. If they start paying their fair share of property taxes that they owe to us, we can actually further reduce property taxes.