Edmonton’s mayor is stressing the importance of cooperation after facing backlash over comments he made about regional financing.
On Friday, Don Iveson suggested city amenities are being used—but not equally funded—by taxpayers outside Edmonton’s limits.
During the Dec. 7 budget discussion, the mayor expressed frustration with what he sees as a financial burden created by residents of surrounding communities, which benefit from city resources like policing, roads and recreation centres.
“It is time for us to go have a conversation with our regional partners about funding these region-wide amenities,” Don Iveson said, adding that “the free ride is over.”
At the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board meeting on Thursday, he faced those municipal neighbours—many of whom were unhappy with last week’s remarks.
Stony Plain Mayor William Choy said he was “just caught in shock.”
“As municipalities working together, there are services that we will provide which the other municipalities will not,” Choy said. “To say that we have to sit down and figure out all the numbers of who is using which facilities and ask for payment—that’s just not working well together in the region.”
The board meeting was the first time the 13 mayors of the metropolitan area had gathered since Iveson’s comments on Friday.
Iveson told CTV News he reached out to the other mayors about the remarks.
“They understand that we’re under a lot of pressure in our budget, and I got passionate about it,” he said. “And most of them, if not all of them, agree there are legitimate issues for us to settle and they go both ways.”
The remarks were mostly put on the backburner Thursday, so the mayors could focus on collaboration.
At the meeting, discussion of cost-sharing between municipalities took the form of a co-financing strategy called “Shared Investments for Shared Benefit.” When implemented, the agreement would see municipalities co-finance projects they believe will benefit the entire region, like roads and possibly recreational infrastructure and emergency services.
The strategy will now be pushed to a task force that will examine the funding model. Upcoming steps could be announced as soon as the next EMRB gathering, in February.
“What we want to do is provide the most amount of services for the least amount of tax dollars,” said Bob Young, Leduc’s mayor.
“Everything is up for discussion and if there’s a benefit for the citizens of Leduc, we have no problem participating.”
Choy, too, said Stony Plain could potentially be on board.
“We worked really hard over the last ten years to grow this region and making sure we have a pact. We’re not competing amongst ourselves.”
With files from Timm Bruch
