I believe in Edmonton. I say it everywhere I go, and the numbers keep backing me up.

This region is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country. We added more than 50,000 people last year, and that is three years running now. We are a post-secondary city: the University of Alberta, NAIT, MacEwan, NorQuest, and Concordia graduate more than 40,000 students a year, several of them from campuses right downtown. Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation, working here on Canada's drug security, has a Nobel laureate as its Chief Scientific Officer. 

We are poised to become a defence city, with federal and provincial money now flowing into defence innovation and manufacturing in this region, which is exactly where it belongs in the country's gateway to the North. And investors are choosing us. Meta broke ground this summer on a $13-billion data centre just northeast of the city, its first in Canada and the largest it has built anywhere outside the United States.

That is not an exhaustive list. It is just a small sample of what’s to come, and the Chamber is betting on this city.

It is also a city adding the population of Grande Prairie every twelve months, and every one of those people needs roads, water, transit, and more. Regional use of City of Edmonton services currently outpaces the region's financial contribution to them. Costs are rising faster than revenue. Property taxes are climbing. Between now and 2030, City Council is going to have to make some genuinely hard decisions, and there is no version of this where everybody walks away happy. 

What This Document Is

This document is the Edmonton Chamber’s commitment to working with the city to make those tough choices, offering our recommendations, our insight, and our support for the difficult decisions to come.

This is the business community's contribution to the 2027–2030 budget conversation, written for City Administration, for elected officials, and for Edmontonians.

Here is what struck me most. After working through the Chamber’s online surveys, the Chamber’s City Councillor Roundtable sessions, working with the Chamber Fiscal Task Force, and sifting through the hundreds of pages of the City's own budget consultation summaries, what Edmontonians told the City aligns with what the Chamber told the City:

• Fiscal responsibility was the single most common theme across every engagement method the City used.
• 80 per cent of Edmontonians want spending focused on maintaining and repairing what the city already owns, ahead of building anything new.
• More than half of Edmontonians would rather close a low-priority facility than raise taxes to keep everything open.
• Licences, permits, parking and recreation passes should be paid for by the people using them, rather than through the property tax levy.

What Edmontonians are asking for is a budget that goes back to the basics. This document is how we get this city Back on Track.

Why This Matters

Right now, Edmonton is paying for things it doesn’t have the money to pay for and borrowing the difference. Governments must do that on occasion, but it cannot be the norm. As it stands, future taxes won’t build anything in the future because they’re caught up paying for the past. 

Every dollar the City spends belongs to someone who earned it. That means every dollar must be a dollar well spent. 

Edmonton needs a budget it can afford. 

That is why this budget is about fiscal responsibility, but it doesn’t have to stay this way forever. If we work together to get the budget back on solid ground over the next four years, we can protect the basics now while making room for the investments that make a city beautiful, vibrant and worth choosing. I want those things for Edmonton. I want them soon. But first, we have to be able to afford them.

Why the Chamber

The City is not a business, and the value of public services cannot be measured in dollars alone. But every well-run organization sets priorities, lives within its means, and knows what its spending is achieving. That is the experience our members bring to this conversation, and we offer it in the spirit of partnership.

Nobody at City Hall is the opponent here. We know that Council, Administration, City staff and the organizations delivering public services all want a city that works. Our concern is with a budgeting approach that allows spending to continue or grow without sufficient prioritization, measurement, or review of the value it delivers to Edmontonians.

Our Three Questions

We tested every recommendation in this document the same way, asking three simple questions of every dollar, in order:

• Should the City do it? Is this the City's responsibility at all, or does it properly belong to another order of government?
• Is the City the right one to do it? If the private sector, a non-profit or another partner could deliver it better, why not work with them and avoid duplicating the work?
• Is the result worth the cost? Can the City show what its investment achieved, and is the price reasonable for what came back?

This is the method behind every recommendation we are putting to Council. It applies the same obligation to every decision, regardless of the amount or where the money came from. It works the same way on a $30 million fire hall as it does on a $300 grant, and it returns a ‘yes’ at least as often as a ‘no’. Sometimes the honest answer is "not right now".

I spent years in elected office. I know what it feels like to be handed a set of options where every one of them costs somebody something, and to have to choose anyway, in public, knowing you will wear it. There is no version of this budget where Council makes everybody happy. 

But, that is the job.

That is why we developed the Business City Budget: not to pretend these choices will be easy, but to offer a practical path through them. The Edmonton Chamber and our members are ready to work with Council and Administration to make the decisions necessary to build a stronger, more affordable and more investable Edmonton.

Our ask is straightforward: build a city Edmonton can afford, and make every dollar count toward something Edmontonians can see, use and value. It is time to get Edmonton Back on Track.

If this message resonates with you, please do not hesitate to reach out at government@edmontonchamber.com to help add your voice.

Best,

-Doug Griffiths, Edmonton Chamber President & CEO