Edmonton city council extends downtown revitalization levy to 2044

Edmonton city council voted Friday evening to extend its divisive downtown revitalization levy another decade, following a two-day public hearing into the matter.

The 9-4 vote came after council heard from dozens of citizens speaking for and against the levy. Those who signed up to speak represented various parts of the downtown community, including citizens, non-profits, business owners and post-secondary institutions. 

"Every North American downtown, coming out of COVID, has struggled," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said during Friday's hearing, before the vote. "This council has shown a very strong commitment to bring more activity, more life into downtown, and more vibrancy into downtown."

The package of proposed projects in the Capital City Downtown Community Revitalization Levy (CRL), which includes a partnership opportunity with the Alberta government and OEG Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Edmonton Oilers, "allows us to build on that success," Sohi said.

"The time is to act, and to act now," he said. "These kinds of opportunities don't come our way all the time."

Friday's vote means the downtown CRL, established in 2015, will be in place until 2044. It was set to expire in 2034.

The levy lets the municipality borrow money from the provincial government against future property tax revenues to help pay for development in the downtown area. The city has two other CRLs to finance development in other areas.

Downtown has seen $4.7 billion in new development since the CRL started, the city said in a news release Friday evening.

With the extension, the release said, the city will consider spending money from the CRL on seven new or updated projects, such as expanding the Winspear Centre, improving transit infrastructure and remediating brownfield.

But there's conflict around the downtown CRL and its use of taxpayer dollars to fund private projects — namely, a proposed event park beside Rogers Place, the Oilers' home stadium.

Nita Jalkanen, who lives in the Parkdale neighbourhood, is among the Edmontonians who spoke against the CRL extension, suggesting taxpayers have been pouring money into the pockets of Daryl Katz, OEG's founder and chairman.

"It's our money that's being spent like water," Jalkanen said.

The park would be one of three major projects wrapped into an agreement between the city, provincial government and OEG. In March, the parties announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding, signalling a willingness to move forward with the project while negotiations continue to finalize the deal.

Details of the MOU suggested the event park would cost $250 million, about one-third of which — $84 million — would be covered by OEG.

The MOU also includes money to build 2,500 new housing units in the Village at Ice District, just north of Rogers Place, and demolish the Coliseum — the Oilers' former arena — and improve the Exhibition Lands area.

Before Friday's vote, Ward pihêsiwin Coun. Tim Cartmell expressed that he finds the notion that OEG unduly benefits from the levy to be misplaced.

"Everything we do, in terms of the CRL, benefits a private landowner in some way, in some form. So it's really a matter of scale, and we happen to have one landowner who's a public figure," said Cartmell, who is also a mayoral candidate in the upcoming civic election.

Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford, one of four council members who opposed, voted based on whether she felt locking in CRL funding for another 10 years was right, she told council Friday.

"Our theory of change is fallible," Rutherford said.

She felt the downtown CRL doesn't align with city initiatives to keep businesses from leaving, nor that it addresses social disorder, she said.

"There's still not going to be vibrancy," she said, noting that residents from the McCauley neighbourhood and Edmonton's Chinatown have raised concerns to council.

"Not everybody is seeing the benefit of this," she said.