After more than a year on the job, Mayor Cathy Heron can claim a number of successes from keeping tax increases low to reaching out to Indigenous people.
The latest feather in her cap came when she told Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson that St. Albert’s tax dollars are “off the table” in paying for Edmonton facilities.
I’m baffled as to how Mayor Iveson thinks the people of St. Albert or any other capital region community are getting a free ride on facilities Edmonton taxpayers pay for, given how much money Edmonton receives through provincial and federal grant programs.
According to Alberta Municipal Affairs, Edmonton received $125,173,450 in Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding and $51,433,718 in Federal Gas Tax Fund money in 2018. St. Albert’s grants for those programs were $10,128,804 and $3,617,501 for 2017-18. Edmonton received $12.36 and $14.22, respectively, for every dollar St. Albert received.
Given that Edmonton has about 14 times the population of St. Albert (Alberta Municipal Affairs lists our 2018 populations at 932,546 and 65,589, respectively), there’s nothing wrong with Edmonton receiving the grant funding that it does.
But what Mayor Iveson seems to forget is that the taxpayers in St. Albert and other communities are already paying for Edmonton’s facilities through their federal and provincial taxes.
And just for the record, the people of the capital region also pump millions of dollars into the Edmonton economy every year. They help make Edmonton the business hub of central Alberta, strengthening Edmonton’s business tax base.
In short, there’s a huge amount of both public and private dollars flowing into Edmonton from the surrounding communities. It’s great that Edmonton provides these amenities, and that its neighbours can support them, but it shows that the surrounding communities are already paying their share to help Edmonton out.
Jared Milne, St. Albert
