Taproot Survey

The city first approved the Community Energy Transition Strategy in 2015 to tackle climate change. This year, city council revised the strategy to include targets aligned with the Paris Agreement. Implementing the plan will require $24 billion in public and private investment over the next 10 years. Without action, the strategy suggests that more frequent and intense weather events could reduce Edmonton's GDP by $3.2 billion annually by the 2050s.

While climate resilience is one of the four strategic goals in ConnectEdmonton, the city's strategic plan for 2019-28, most of the city's decisions do not take climate change into account directly. The Community Energy Transition Strategy includes an action for the city to monitor and report on the carbon budget and to integrate a carbon accounting framework into all operating and capital budgeting decisions and priority setting by 2022.

The E.L. Smith Solar Farm was approved by city council in October 2020. The project would create a roughly 51-acre solar farm adjacent to the E.L. Smith Water Treatment Plant. The Edmonton River Valley Conservation Coalition has filed a legal challenge against council's decision, arguing that the "this development should not happen at the expense of the river valley."

In Alberta, municipalities are generally not allowed to run budget deficits, which means city council must make difficult decisions at budget time. Property taxes, which some consider regressive, provide roughly 57% of the city's $3 billion in revenue each year. Beyond raising taxes, council must generally focus on managing expenses, by spending less or trying to find efficiencies.

Roughly half of the property tax the city collects each year comes from residential property owners and half comes from businesses. The tax rate is two to three times higher for businesses than for residences, because businesses account for only about a quarter of the assessment base.

According to the city auditor, the City of Edmonton has about 12,000 employees. From 2010 to 2014, the city's workforce grew consistently with Edmonton's population, but since 2016, population growth has outpaced the growth of the workforce.

The Affordable Housing Investment Plan aims to build 2,500 units of affordable housing and 600 units of supportive housing by 2022 at an estimated cost of about $500 million, funded by all three orders of government. As of May 2021, the city was about halfway to its goal. Earlier this year the city was denied federal funding to build more housing units due to a lack of provincial funding to operate them.

Housing First involves moving people who experience homelessness into independent and permanent housing as quickly as possible, with no preconditions. Those individuals are then provided with additional supports and services as needed. Since 2009, more than 12,000 people have been housed and supported through Edmonton's Housing First program.

The City of Edmonton's Encampment Response Team (ERT) works in partnership with housing agencies and the police to determine whether encampments are low or high risk and what further action is taken. In 2020, the ERT received more than 4,000 complaints about encampments and dismantled 1,477. In April 2021, city council endorsed a new encampment strategy intended to ensure a housing-focused, compassionate response.

Upzoning is when developers seek a variance to build extra height or units than existing plans allow, with the goal of making a project more financially feasible. City council has been accused of too often approving upzoned projects, such as the now-cancelled Mezzo tower in Old Strathcona, without getting anything in return. To address this, the Community Amenity Contributions policy was approved in July 2018 to establish public benefits to be provided by developers in exchange for a variance.

Edmonton's Infill Roadmap 2018 contains 25 actions intended to help welcome more people and homes into the city's older neighbourhoods. As of 2021, the roadmap is two-thirds complete, with work on the remaining nine actions already underway. After 2022, infill initiatives will be advanced through implementation of the City Plan, which targets that 50% of new housing units be added through infill city-wide.

A key component of the City Plan is the creation of districts that allow people to easily complete their daily needs, such as getting to work, picking up groceries, going to the park, or running errands, within a 15-minute travel time by walking, cycling, or riding transit.

In June of 2020, city council heard from dozens of speakers during three days of public hearings on racism and policing. The Community Safety and Well-Being Task Force, which was set up in response, identified a number of longstanding problems with policing in Edmonton that it attributed to systemic racism and discrimination, and made 14 recommendations to root out the problems. Black Lives Matter Edmonton went further, calling on the city to defund the police.

The city spends about $450 million or 15% of its annual budget on policing. The funding formula approved in 2018 ensures the police budget increases each year based on population growth and inflation. According to the Community Safety and Well-Being Task Force's final report, "Edmonton spends more per person on policing than many comparable cities in Canada."

Funding requests from the police for capital projects are considered by city council alongside other capital projects. The Edmonton Police Service requested capital funding of $122 million for six growth projects as part of its 2019-2022 capital budget, $82 million of which was for a new firearms facility that was not approved. It also requested funding for renewal projects, much of which council approved, including the purchase of the Air-2 helicopter.

In July 2020, the UCP government instituted campaign finance rules that no longer require candidates to reveal their donors until after the election, reversing a change implemented by the NDP in 2018. The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association has opposed the change.

In 2018, city council adopted a Council Code of Conduct, creating a process for complaints to be filed and investigated. Since then, the integrity commissioner has found one councillor in violation of the code three times, but council has never reached the requisite two-thirds majority to censure him.

The provincial government has indicated that two referendum questions (on equalization and daylight saving time) and a vote to choose Alberta's Senate nominees will be added to the municipal ballot in October. AUMA president Barry Morishita has expressed concerns that these questions may distract from local issues.

The Edmonton Arts Council launched the Creators' Reserve grant program in April 2020 to support artists with funding of $500,000 drawn from existing budgets. In July 2021, city council approved the $1 million 2021 Festivals & Events COVID-19 Recovery Grant Program to help encourage the return of festivals and events.

The City is working on a citywide public washroom strategy which aims to develop more permanent public washrooms like the one on Whyte Avenue at Gateway Boulevard. Unstaffed facilities cost about $8,000 per month to maintain. A six-month pilot project to staff the Whyte Avenue washrooms cost about $20,000 per month. The city suggests that staffing public washrooms may improve safety and cleanliness.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued 94 calls to action to recognize the harm done by residential schools and repair the damage that continues to this day. As part of its response, the City of Edmonton developed an Indigenous Framework to support and build strong relationships with Indigenous Peoples, which was endorsed by city council in February.

In November 2020, city council approved lowering the default residential speed limit from 50 km/h to 40 km/h as of Aug. 6. Paths for People has argued that 30 km/h would be better to decrease the severity of collisions. A community group also proposed lowering the residential speed limit to 30 km/h at least in the Core Zone, which includes Edmonton's mature neighbourhoods. Opponents of lowering speed limits cited motorists' lost time and the costs of enforcement measures.

City council has been working to accommodate active transportation modes, including cycling, walking, and rolling. The City Plan calls for more infrastructure for active transportation which could mean sacrificing driving lanes and/or parking. The goal is to increase trips made via active transportation and transit from 23% (in 2020) to 50%.

The Yellowhead Trail Freeway Conversion project, expected to be complete by the end of 2027, will cost more than $1 billion with about half coming from the city's budget. Nearly $2 billion will be spent in the current budget cycle on roads, including neighbourhood renewal, the Terwillegar Drive Expansion, and other projects.

City council decided in April to leave cash fares for transit at $3.50 until February 2022, when fares are to go up to $4 and "smart fare" cards will be introduced with a $3 flat rate. Transit revenues currently cover about 45% of operating costs for the service. Lowering fares could mean a reduction in service, an increase in taxes, or both.

In April, Edmonton Transit launched its first bus network redesign in more than 20 years, removing some less-busy routes to increase frequency on higher-demand routes. It also introduced an on-demand shuttle service to designated transit hubs in 37 communities that don't have regular bus routes.

The City of Edmonton's LRT Network Plan, adopted in 2009, consists of five lines extending in all directions. There are currently about $5.8 billion worth of LRT expansion projects underway on three of those lines; nothing has been done beyond the strategy phase on the other two.