April 22, 2025
City Council has approved a 5.7 per cent municipal property tax levy increase for 2025. Last fall, Council approved $8.5 million in ongoing savings and other steps to limit the required tax increase, as part of continued efforts to tackle budget challenges. Challenges like inflationary pressures, rapid population growth and Edmontonians’ changing service needs have made service delivery much more expensive than forecasted when the four-year budget was developed and approved in 2022.
“The City continues to take fiscally responsible steps to manage the budget challenges we face and to minimize the impact of those challenges on the people we serve,” said Stacey Padbury, Chief Financial Officer and Deputy City Manager, Financial and Corporate Services. “The challenges we face are complex and will take time to manage, but we’ve made progress this year by finding ways to reduce our spending and limit what we need to collect in property taxes, and by taking steps to bring our revenues in line with what it actually costs now to deliver the services that matter to Edmontonians.”
The approved increase is 0.4 per cent less than the 6.1 per cent increase Council approved in the fall due to changes in the provincial budget that partially restored Grants in Place of Taxes (GIPOT) payments.
The tax levy increase will affect property owners differently, depending how a property’s assessed value compares to the market. For example, a household with a 2025 assessment of $465,500 will pay $296 per month to help fund 70 City services, including emergency services, parks, trails, roads, bridges, transit, recreation centres, attractions and social supports.
The spring municipal tax levy confirmation is the last step in finalizing the annual tax levy, which funds over half of the City’s operating budget. The City will bring forward a bylaw next week to set the tax rates based on the increase approved today. Property tax bills include municipal taxes, which are collected by the City to pay for City services, and provincial education taxes, which the City collects on behalf of the Province to fund public and separate schools. These two taxes change at different rates each year, and are added together to make up the total tax amount property owners must pay. Tax notices will be mailed to all property owners on May 23, with property taxes due on June 30.
