Edmonton's freshly inaugurated city council received a sobering financial forecast during their first day of orientation on Monday, November 17, 2025. City administration presented a projection that property taxes would need to increase by a significant 6.4 per cent to cover the municipality's escalating operational costs.
A Challenging Financial Reality
The draft budget, which is scheduled for public release on Thursday, will be formally presented to council on November 25-26. This will be followed by crucial budget deliberations from December 1-4, where council members will have the opportunity to debate and propose changes to the financial plan. This initial briefing served as a stark introduction to the fiscal challenges awaiting the council at the start of their four-year term.
Mayor Andrew Knack was quick to address the concerns that such a proposed increase would generate. He clarified that the 6.4 per cent levy does not directly translate to an identical hike on every individual property tax bill. The final impact on a homeowner, he explained, depends on how their specific property's assessed value has changed in relation to the overall market.
Addressing Past Decisions and Future Growth
Knack contextualized the proposed increase as the final step in a four-year budget cycle designed to compensate for a period of unusually low tax increases during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had the lowest property taxes in more than 25 years from 2019 to 2022,” Knack stated. “It was the right thing to do at the time, but that means we weren’t keeping up with population growth. We weren’t even keeping up with inflation. So the last term on council meant we had to make up for that.”
The mayor acknowledged the difficulty of the ask, noting, “I know a 6.4 per cent increase is already hard to ask of folks at a time when costs are going up everywhere — groceries, insurance, fuel, all of that.” The pressure is intensified by Edmonton's rapid expansion, with the city's population expected to hit 1.25 million soon and potentially reach two million within a few years.
A New Approach to Budgeting and Public Engagement
In response to these challenges, the new council plans to implement a different budgeting strategy. This new approach will involve city departments providing monthly updates on their operations, allowing for more continuous scrutiny of departmental budgets rather than a single annual review.
Integral to this new process will be a commitment to greater public engagement. “We added 200,000 people in the last four years,” Knack said. “When you’re adding that many people, there is a net increase to our budget. I don’t think we’ve done a great job of actually going out into the city and talking with Edmontonians about that reality and asking for feedback on what they want to see — what they want to see more investment in and what they’re OK with less investment in.”
The orientation meeting also covered foundational aspects of civic governance, informing councillors that their direct employees are the city manager and city clerk, and detailing the city's corporate structure as it prepares for continued growth.
