Natasha Riebe · CBC News · Posted: Dec 16, 2022 12:17 PM MT | Last Updated: December 16

Property owners in Edmonton can expect to pay about five per cent more in taxes in each of the next four years after city council approved the 2023-26 operating and capital budgets Friday. Administration had proposed a 3.9 per cent property tax increase when it presented the operating budget in mid-November. Amendments to the capital and operating budgets over the past week added to the tax levy. Council voted 9-4 in favour of the $7.9-billion capital budget. Those voting against included Tim Cartmell, Sarah Hamilton, Jennifer Rice and Karen Principe. The operating budget passed 8-5 with Cartmell, Hamilton, Rice, Principe and Andrew Knack voting against it. The operating budget for 2023 is $3.29 billion. As approved, it will be $3.34 billion in 2024, $3.48 billion in 2025 and $3.56 billion in 2026. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the budgets help create a more affordable city for lower-income residents by freezing users fees for recreation centres and increasing on-demand public transit and off-peak transit service. He also lauded council's decision to invest in the bike lane implementation.

"I wish we were at a lower rate," Sohi told reporters after the vote. "But we worked hard and we tried to balance the needs of keeping services affordable." Coun. Aaron Paquette noted that tax increases in the past few years were low and can change as council adjusts the budgets twice a year. "When it comes to mowing, there's another opportunity in the spring to change the budget," Paquette said. "Budgets are fluid. There's a continuum." It translates to a 4.96 per cent tax increase in 2023 and 2024, 4.95 per cent in 2025 and 4.39 per cent in 2026. The owner of a typical household can expect to pay about $725 in 2023 for every $100,000 of assessed home value, an increase of $34 from 2022, the city says.