Tax Relief for Residents and Businesses during COVID-19

Today City Council voted to approve my motion of an overall average two percent tax decrease for business and no additional increase in property tax for homeowners, which will result in an average zero percent increase for residential properties. I want to stress that the final property tax bill for individual properties will fluctuate, but for the average home in Edmonton, valued at $387,000, this motion results in a  decrease of $28. 

This is truly momentous. I want to acknowledge how much hard work it took for us to arrive at these budget and overall tax bills for 2020, which will be flat relative to last year for most residents and down for businesses in Edmonton. It took all hands on deck and included a commitment for reductions from Council office budgets, a reduction in education property taxes from Province, hundreds of hours of staff work, tough cuts where necessary, layoffs, and projects being delayed. 

Add in absorbing extra costs that we experienced because of the Government of Alberta budget cuts as well as COVID-19, it is miraculous that we could get the number down this low — the lowest it has been in decades.

It sends the right signal to business: that we understand how much they are hurting right now and that we wanted to cut them a further break at this time to help them survive in our city. A city relies on its businesses to drive employment and the economy — as well as our quality of life. We want to help our businesses now so we can protect Edmonton’s economic future. 

Over $11 million dollars of tax relief for business, which this tax move provides, is a good start. We will have to look at additional opportunities to provide relief to business, and we have another $10 million set aside for other business relief and economic recovery and diversification work.

If we do eventually get financial aid from the provincial and/or federal governments, my hope is that we will be able to be more specific if our aid to businesses and provide targeted relief to local businesses who have been hit particularly hard by this pandemic. 

This is a first step — I understand that we will need to do more for businesses. Cities have very limited tools — in fact property tax is one of our only tools to provide relief on top of deferral of utility bills. That is why I will continue to push our federal and provincial partners to help us provide the relief Edmontonians need.

We are still facing the financial pressures of COVID-19 and we won’t truly know the full impacts until months from now but I hope that today’s news helps to alleviate some of the pressures people are facing.

Speaking of rebounding from COVID-19, Council today also agreed to form four council initiatives that will focus on our recovery and relaunch plans. These take the place of current initiatives right now. The four initiatives focus are Social/Healthy City, Environment and Climate, Urban Places and the Shape and Growth of our City and, of course,  Regional Economic Prosperity. 

Our hope is these initiatives will take the lens of how COVID-19 has impacted these areas and what changes to city plans may need to be made moving forward. City Council is committed to helping Edmontonians bounce back from COVID-19 so that we can ensure we build on our strongest asset, and really the heart of our community: our people. 

BY THE NUMBERS:

• 0%: non-residential municipal property tax increase.
• 2%: non-residential total property tax decrease (when combined with education property taxes).
• 2.5%: residential municipal property tax increase.
• 0.03%: residential total property tax decrease (when combined with education property taxes).
• $28: property tax decrease for average home.
• $164 million: estimated hit to City finances by mid-September as a result of COVID-19.
• 7.6%: tax increase avoided by cost reductions and adjustments to the capital budget.