After weeks of debate, St. Albert city councillors passed the 2025 budget and utility rates at their last regular meeting of the year Dec. 17.
The package includes the city’s rolling three-year financial plan for 2025-27, and the municipal and utility capital budgets (what they plan to build next year).
The numbers haven’t moved much since the Gazette reported on the dust settling at the end of November.
Property taxes will be 3.6 per cent higher than they were in 2024, an increase of $31 per year per $100,000 assessed property value. The actual tax rate will be finalized in May, after the assessment roll, an inventory of all the structures in the city and their value, is completed.
The average utility rate will increase 7.2 per cent or $11.27 per month compared to last year.
“Our Council’s goal was to maintain the valued services and service levels that our growing community of 72,316 residents depend on daily,” Mayor Cathy Heron said in a news release. “In light of increasing costs and inflation, as a Council and Administration we considered resident feedback and worked towards shared goals when balancing the challenges, opportunities and community needs reflected in the approved 2025 budget.”
In the first draft of the 2025 budget, the tax increase was 4.5 per cent. Council used an increase to the franchise fee on utility bills to cut that down to 4.0 per cent, only to see it driven back up to 4.4 per cent by the projected cost of the 2025 municipal election, inflated by the banning of vote tabulator machines by the province.
Capital projects city staff recommend go ahead in the coming year include:
- Transit Garage (Liggett Place) Expansion: $10.6 million
- RWP West - Meadowview Construction: $4.7 million
- New Neighbourhood Park Development: $2 million
- Roadway Preliminary Engineering and Design: $650,000
- Active Transportation (10-year program for new sidewalks): $595,000
- Neighbourhood Traffic Calming: $483,000
- Badger Lands Site Plan: $330,000
- Founders Walk Phase 3: $264,000
- Public Art: $263,000
- Transportation Network Improvements: $110,000
The City of St. Albert is projecting a surplus of nearly $9 million for 2024, much of the savings caused by staff vacancies across the organization, from lifeguards to RCMP officers.
