A month of public consultations on what Edmontonians want to see in the next four-year budget cycle has kicked off, foreshadowing the city’s spending and tax collection for 2027 to 2030.
Council did a “deep dive” into city operations in order to prepare. Getting through the city’s 11 specific departments, each with its own budget, purpose and staff, took six full days of meetings. Below is a summary of what council heard. All listed budgets are taken from each department’s total expenses for 2025.
You can find dates and locations for upcoming budget town halls at https://engaged.edmonton.ca/budget. You can also visit https://cityofedmonton.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5yzNg3deH3Y4vNY to submit your feedback.
Who’s in charge here?
At the head of city bureaucracy is the ‘office of the city manager.’ It oversees municipal elections, coordinates with other governments, communicate with the public, operates the city’s social media accounts, manages information requests, oversees security services and ensures the city is operating within the law — with a budget of $103 million. It also handles over $1.1 billion in payroll to city employees. The office itself employs 565 people.
‘Financial and corporate services’ handles the majority of the paperwork and boasts a AA+ credit rating. Processing taxes and maintaining the books, 1,209 employees are also responsible for the city’s warehouses, IT networks and other assets with a $238-million budget.
You may be familiar with the ‘urban planning and economy’ department — these are the folks who direct new developments, including infill. With a $209-million budget, they’re also is in charge of safety inspections. Employing 695 Edmontonians, the department was ranked first in the country for development processes, timelines and fees by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association in 2024.
Who’s does the heavy lifting?
Not surprisingly, the largest slice of the pie goes to operations. Fighting fires, clearing snow and fixing potholes takes a lot of people, vehicles and equipment — maintaining all this costs over $1 billion and employs 5,346 personnel.
Maintaining all the city’s infrastructure and assets falls under the purview of the department of ‘integrated infrastructure services.’ Repairing the city’s over 12,000 km of road, expanding the city’s LRT network and planting trees is coordinated by 558 employees. While the department has an operating budget of $96 million, most of the physical work is funded from the city’s capital budget, which was $7.8 billion between 2023 and 2026; it is currently projected at $2.1 billion for 2027.
Keeping all these assets in decent condition is a full-time job in itself, so the city has an entire department focused on ‘fleet and facility services.’ Maintaining the city’s 1,783 structural assets and 5,283 vehicles costs $365 million, employing 1,207 Edmontonians, most in the skilled trades.
Overseeing traffic safety enforcement, snow removal and parking enforcement, the ‘parks and roads’ department is also the reason why you don’t see a lot of mosquitoes some summers. Responsible for the city’s parks, the department employs 1,682 Edmontonians with a budget of $338 million.
Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) is its own $500-million department. It takes the work of 2,457 employees operating 984 conventional buses and 104 paratransit buses to get many Edmontonians to and from work every day. Each bus travels a distance between 50,000 to 55,000 km each year. Maintaining the buses cost the city $98.2 million between 2023 to 2026 and transit users contributed $111 million to the departments operations last year.
But who you gonna call?
Fire rescue services are included under the community services umbrella. Of the department’s $615-million budget, fire services burn through just under $277 million — 77.8 per cent of that goes into operations. But community services also oversees festivals, amenities such as arenas, swimming pools and art installations, affordable housing and the city’s peace officer corp. All this work takes the effort of 3,087 employees.
Employing 189 Edmontonians, the ‘social services’ branch connects residents and non-profits to grants and manage the city’s affordable housing assets. The department provides funds to 20 non-profits annually and is one of the few departments where personnel isn’t the largest budget item. Approximately 70 per cent of its $100-million budget is subsidies and grants to those in need. Since 2023, the department has overseen the development or renewal of 3,541 affordable housing units.
Enforcing the city’s bylaws and dealing with the non-human residents of the city currently rests at the feet of 434 employees in the ‘community standards’ branch. These are the peace officers who respond to calls of parking violations, loose dogs, problem properties and illegal encampments. Responding to over 240,000 complaints from Edmontonians costs just shy of $70 million.
Finally, the city’s 1,103 employees in the ‘community recreation and culture’ department handle everything from swimming lessons to golf courses, hockey arenas to summer green shacks and the Valley Zoo. The department spends $169 million while collecting nearly $71 million in user fees. The department also oversees the city’s cemeteries.
A few items were passed over during the deep dive — the biggest being policing, which costs $628 million and was excluded because the police deparment reports through the Edmonton Police Commission. In addition, the ‘mayor and councillors offices’ employs 52 people and costs $8 million. The ‘office of the city auditor’ costs $3.2 million and employs 17 people. Agencies, Boards, Committees and Commissions is budgeted at $58 million. Utilities also reports through the utilities commission — EPCOR told the utility committee on Feb. 2 it plans to spend $464 million on upgrades to the water system
Related
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.