Shifting Gears

Over the past 15 years, the City of Edmonton has found itself in an increasingly challenging financial situation. As Edmonton’s population grows alongside the demand for services, the city has struggled to keep pace with the added challenges it faces. With spending growing faster than revenues, the city is feeling the pinch. Residents, city workers, city councillors, and advocates are all sounding the alarm about the consequences of the band-aid solutions being deployed.

Interviews we conducted for this report revealed that people are increasingly concerned about homelessness, mental illness, addiction, and the rising cost of living. The conditions from which these issues stem are primarily shaped by provincial and federal policy, yet it is the municipality that incurs the costs of responding to the outcomes. Funding services such as food banks, shelters, and low-income transit passes are examples of how decisions made by other levels of government can expand the municipality's responsibilities. In many cases, the municipality does not have the decision-making power to transform the policies that create or enable these conditions. Instead, they are left to handle the consequences and address the diverse concerns raised by various overlapping groups such as residents, workers, advocates, and lobby groups.

The core tension the municipality faces is that it lacks sufficient financial resources to provide the extent and quality of services that Edmontonians need. The strain is being felt in multiple ways. First, the city finds itself with less money and more work due to cuts to provincial funding paired with creating conditions of crisis left for the city to address. Second, the money the city does have at its disposal is not always spent in ways that maximize returns, while potential revenue streams, including borrowing and developer charges, go underutilized.

The impacts of reduced provincial transfers cannot be overstated. Between 2011 and 2023, provincial transfers for infrastructure fell drastically from $424 per Albertan to $154. Even before adjusting for inflation, the City of Edmonton now receives less funding than it did from the province in 2009. The city is fairly limited through the Municipal Government Act to rely on existing revenue streams, such as property tax, user fees, and development charges, and is forced to compensate for the lost funding through such avenues, ultimately impacting Edmontonians through monetary and service level losses.

Despite these conditions, virtually nothing has changed in the distribution of Edmonton’s spending over time. This represents a clear-cut example of status quo decision-making and ample evidence that the current strategies are not working. Over-allocating funds to reactive services — such as police, fire, and EMS — needs to be examined to address the root causes of calls and continuous strain on ill-equipped systems.

While many can readily recognize the need for change in Edmonton, the near-total breakdown in trust and collaboration between the province and the municipality further curtails avenues for positive change. Unable to find ways to engage with the province, the city passes the additional financial strain onto city workers. A consequently frayed relationship between management and workers (and their unions) proves to be a barrier to finding savings.

To address fiscal strain, as well as improve management-labour relations and transparency with the public, we recommend the following:

 

1. Advocate for provincial reforms to the Municipal Government Act.

By exploring the potential benefits of new tax streams, such as progressive property taxes, the municipality could reduce its reliance on provincial funding and gain greater control over its financial planning. Implementing these changes will require direct advocacy with the province to reform the Municipal Government Act.

 

2. Require substantial completion to slow urban sprawl.

Density must be prioritized over sprawl for the City of Edmonton to meet the goals laid out in the city plan. Population growth and the resulting demand for housing can be addressed by densifying mature neighbourhoods, where infrastructure such as transit, libraries, recreation centers, and fire halls are already built.

 

3. Create pathways for city workers to identify potential efficiencies.

City workers have first-hand knowledge of what changes can be made at the city level to increase efficiency and cut costs. Moving away from a top-down management approach and recognizing the expertise that city workers have in their respective areas of work would improve decision-making while effectively empowering city workers.

 

4. Improve transparency by increasing workers’ and the public’s access to information.

The choices the municipality makes have a direct impact on the lives of Edmontonians. Ensuring that the necessary information is made publicly available and accessible is crucial to building a city with engaged residents, where people have the tools they need to fully engage across political spheres.

 

5. Be intentional about the long-term impacts of how the city communicates information to the public.

A municipal government is the most accessible level of government, meaning it will likely engage residents directly on issues that may be beyond its scope. Merely shifting the blame to other levels of government does little to incentivize residents to engage with the politics that directly shape their lives. Efforts could be better spent working toward creative solutions that can be achieved locally and fostering political engagement to encourage involvement with provincial and federal politics as well.

 

6. Interrogate the logics that underlie the city’s current spending priorities.

Spending choices that do not align with evidence-based decision-making should be questioned, even if they reflect long-standing norms in the city’s operations. The City of Edmonton needs to put meaningful action behind its vibrant strategic visions, like Vision 2050.

 

7. Prioritize rebuilding the relationship between city management and city workers.

The antagonistic relationships between the city and the province negatively impact other relationships, including between city administration and city workers. Building strong relationships between city management and city workers will be key to harnessing labour expertise to address pressing issues in Edmonton.

 

8. Harness labour power toward broader solidarity goals.

Organized labour has significant potential to advance evidence-based social policy by pressuring municipal, provincial, and federal governments to address residents’ unmet material needs through broad solidarity. Frontline service workers have become de-facto social workers with unique insight into how a lack of needed supports trickles into daily life for everyone.