Day two of the City of Grande Prairie’s 2025 Budget Deliberations wrapped up on Thursday, with several changes that will be up for finalization by the end of the budget talks.
Among them, the expansion of bussing into the Copperwood area marked what Mayor Jackie Clayton calls a “huge win” for the city as GP continues to grow.
“Adding a new area based on demand is a win in regards to transit usage,” she says.
While discussing the future of public transit as a whole, Mayor Clayton says service levels continue to grow, triggering the city’s transit manager to continue their regular evaluations of ridership to guide council’s decisions on which areas have the greatest need.
The Mayor insists that one thing is certain though, transit has seen a 119 per cent growth in youth riders alone. She says this is partly due to the city’s decision to give users under 17 a free ride. Still, as a whole, Clayton says she is pleased to see public transit usage continue to rise.
“We are seeing significant uptake on our transit, our growth in ridership is in the three digits, you know, there’s 119 per cent growth in the youth riders alone,” she says. “It’s great to see as we tweaked the transit master plan and made it work, more accessible, more aligned with people’s work schedules and work needs and transit needs.”
“It’s really been a great opportunity, providing transit for under 17 for free has been something that we’ve seen as a great win in our community.”
Not all of the projects on the block received funding boosts, however. In an effort to save the city $250,000 annually, council opted to increase the trigger point for snow-clearing crews from 10 centimetres to 13.
“Snow removal in our community is something that we’ve heard loud and clear people prioritize, it’s something that we expect to have a great service level because of the fact that we’re a northern community and we’re a winter city,” Clayton says.
The Mayor maintains the decision was not made without consultation with residents though. She says based on the city’s findings, residents are willing to decrease service levels, in order to lower a potential tax hike.
“Through our resident engagement plan, we saw that people were willing to have a decrease in services in order to be able to see a lower outcome in taxes,” she says. “I think that if when people are consciously reminded of the high cost of living, they’re very aware of what the tax impacts are on their property tax.”
Clayton adds that as the city continues to find ways to combat inflation while maintaining similar service levels, her council will continue to prioritize the cost of living.
“When council has an opportunity to make a reduction with a minimal service change, I think those are the areas councils looking for,” she says. “It’s not going to change the arterial snow removal, it’s not going to change collectors, really, it’s going to change in maybe in your residential subdivision, based on an accumulated amount of snow, so in a 24-hour period to see three centimeters difference, I don’t think people will really see much of a change.”
The City’s tentative property tax spike remains at 4.75 per cent; however, City of GP CFO Danielle Whiteway maintains that number could fluctuate, depending on council’s Capital Budget decisions on Friday.
“This year, management proposed 12 million of tax to be spent on capital, last year, it was just over 9 million,” she says. “So, if Council tomorrow, perhaps, determines that less projects will go forward and therefore less capital tax is required, we can then correspondingly drop the tax rate required.”
The third and final day of Budget Deliberations is scheduled for November 15th, when city council will discuss and debate any remaining capital projects as well as set the final, tentative property tax increase.
