Just as St. Albert homeowners are getting over the sticker shock of near double-digit utility bill increases and property taxes that are due at the end of the month, council paved the way for another significant hit to wallets with a 10 per cent hike to transit fares. The latest cost increase not only raises questions about the long-term sustainability of transit but points to major budget challenges facing city council and a watershed moment for the type of community we want to become.
The transit hikes won’t be official until budget time this fall, but would raise a one-way cash fare to $2.75, seniors’ passes to $55 a month, local passes to $65 and commuter passes to a whopping $105. The recommendation came with all sorts of bar graphs to compare local cost recovery ratios versus other Alberta municipalities, but at the end of the day it represents a big hit for customers. The new commuter pass is the second most expensive in Alberta behind only Airdrie, which is 20 kilometres from Calgary.
That kind of increase, needed due to the rising cost of fuel, won’t come without some pain. Officials advised a 10 per cent jump typically leads to a drop in ridership between 2.3 and 4.2 per cent for peak and off-peak hours, respectively, and it’s coming off a year that saw ridership fall 2.3 per cent. For a service that is much maligned — for the quality of its local service in particular — it should add new fuel to the fire about whether St. Albert can afford its own transit service and whether the region needs three independent transit operators run by their own administrations.
The transit fare issue is a symptom of the overall budget pain facing city council. Like other Alberta municipalities, city hall is dealing with rising costs and fixed revenue sources, most notably through property taxes. And while tax increases are a sore spot for home and business owners everywhere, the sensitivity to hikes is more pronounced in St. Albert where average bills are the highest in the province. The last few years council has managed to keep increases below five per cent, aided by a slower economy that kept inflation in check. But at the same time utility bills have jumped 9.5 per cent annually, while council upped a hidden tax like the natural gas franchise fee, which will generate $1.7 million in revenue — at a cost of $81 to homeowners.
At the same time we’ve seen council delay spending by one or several years. This past week council, sitting as the finance committee, again put off upgrades to fire hall No. 1 ($6.1 million over two years), the train whistle cessation program ($400,000), RCMP parking lot expansion ($220,000), sidewalk widening ($30,000) and improvements to make the Art Gallery of St. Albert wheelchair accessible and barrier free ($564,000), among others. Meanwhile, many big-ticket projects, from the heritage sites to downtown improvement and the library building remain on the unfunded list, where they’re likely to remain indefinitely. It’s part of an ongoing balancing act to ensure St. Albert retains the high-quality services the mayor touts without breaking the bank — for city hall or residents. It leaves us wondering when council is going to have a serious reality check about the services we can afford, especially as new residential neighbourhoods come on stream, adding to operating costs.
Unfortunately for St. Albertans weary of the nickel and diming, there is no easy fix. Without serious changes to the city’s expenditures — potentially a controversial move — times will get tougher before they get better. The only long-term fix for a sustainable community is to rebalance the property tax load by encouraging non-residential development that creates jobs and results in local spending. That could take decades to happen, but the work starts Monday when council receives the industrial land needs study. For many St. Albert homeowners, it’s work that’s sorely overdue.
