Here are my latest Edmonton notes!
Council approves first property tax freeze since 1997
Edmonton’s city council has finished its work for the year, approving a 0% tax increase for 2021, the first property tax freeze since 1997. I followed the budget discussion fairly closely and wrote about their decisions twice for Taproot:
We also touched on the budget in the latest episode of Speaking Municipally.
At the beginning of the week, council gave final approval to the City Plan. It’s an important document, and its adoption caps off a successful run at the City of Edmonton for Kalen Anderson.
But the budget is where council’s true priorities are revealed. It’s one thing to put an initiative in the plan and quite another to fund it. The mayor took pains to connect the passing of the budget adjustments to City Plan. While I agree the budget council passed managed to fund a number of important projects given the ongoing pandemic, there’s a lot more to do to actually bring City Plan to life.
Speaking of the mayor, you should check out Emily Rendell-Watson’s year-end interview with him. I was glad to see him highlight his work on the regional file.
Other recent headlines
- There has been encouraging vaccine news lately but it’s hard to get excited given the numbers we’re seeing in Alberta. There have been 719 deaths in the province as of Dec. 13, with 20,562 active cases, nearly 10,000 of which are in the Edmonton zone.
- Congratulations to Puneeta McBryan on being named the new executive director of the Downtown Business Association!
- Canada’s most expensive Skip the Dishes order for 2020 was made by an Edmonton customer whose $900.27 bill included three bottles of Dom Perignon. Who knew!
- I really love local advertising agency AM/FM’s take on the fireplace channel for 2020: an hour-long video of a dumpster fire. Brilliant!
For more recent headlines, check out the latest from Taproot Edmonton.
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