Mayor calls on province to start paying property taxes

Sohi wants a slice of Alberta's surplus Edmonton's mayor says Alberta's surplus was partly made by underfunding municipalities. Chelan Skulski explains.

Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi says it's time for the province to start paying property taxes to the city again.

After ending the 2023 fiscal year with an extra $4.3 billion, Sohi is calling on Alberta's government to pay $80 million in outstanding property taxes and change how growing cities are funded.

"Their situation has improved, so I am calling on the province to restore their funding," Sohi said on Tuesday.

Ric McIver, Alberta's minister of municipal affairs, says the province has a program "called 'grants in place of taxes,' which we pay at 50 per cent of what property taxes would be."

"We have talked to Edmonton about their funding requests," McIver said Tuesday in Calgary.

In 2019, that amount was 75 per cent, and before then, it was matched dollar for dollar. The province said the multiple cuts to the program were needed to reduce operational spending.

Sohi said the city has been given "indications" that the province is "open to having conversations around restoring" paying property taxes.

He said he also wants to see changes to how municipalities are funded to ensure growing cities' infrastructure needs are met. His concerns are not new.

Sohi outlined his demands in a six-page letter to Premier Danielle Smith last April, calling on the government to revisit the local government fiscal framework and review the police funding model.

Political scientist Brendan Boyd says while Sohi has little legal authority over how cities are funded, the province could benefit from keeping cities happy, adding if the province doesn't pay up, city council has limited options.

"The big one is property taxes, and we saw that we've already got an 8.9-per-cent increase on the books," Boyd told CTV News Edmonton.

Otherwise, the city could raise revenues through increased taxes or recreation centre fees, price hikes that have potential political consequences.