Edmonton mayor wants Alberta government to pay its property taxes [Video]

Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi says it’s time for the province to start paying property taxes to the city again.

After ending the 2023 fiscal year with an extra $4.3 billion, Sohi is calling on Alberta’s government to pay $80 million in outstanding property taxes and change how growing cities are funded.

“Their situation has improved, so I am calling on the province to restore their funding,” Sohi said on Tuesday.

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Ric McIver, Alberta’s minister of municipal affairs, says the province has a program “called ‘grants in place of taxes,’ which we pay at 50 per cent of what property taxes would be.”

“We have talked to Edmonton about their funding requests,” McIver said Tuesday in Calgary.

In 2019, that amount was 75 per cent, and before then, it was matched dollar for dollar. The province …