The City of Edmonton isn’t as deep in the deficit hole as staff thought it would be heading into the final stage of a four-year budget cycle.
The capital budget deficit for 2018 is now projected to be about $22 million, down from the $62 million that staff estimated it would be in May.
The city released the fall 2017 adjustments to the capital budget Thursday, a plan the city’s chief financial officer, Todd Burge, called a mostly “business-as-usual scenario.”
“Most of what we are presenting to council on Dec. 6 is what you have already heard and seen in previous years of the four-year capital budget,” Burge said.
The city is spending $1.4 billion in 2018 to complete $4.5 billion in projects approved in 2014, including new fire stations, library upgrades, the northwest police campus, and other infrastructure projects.
The city says it’s seeing higher-than-expected income from investments because of the modest improvement in the economy in recent months.
The city is also altering plans for some projects and putting others on hold until the 2019-2022 cycle, the budget document shows.
The budget adjustment estimates that “$47.4 million of capital funding has been identified and made available for reallocation” due in part to these investments and project changes.
Councillors will debate the capital and operating budgets next week.
Anyone wanting to give input on how the city should use its capital funds can present their ideas to council during a meeting on Dec. 6.
For more about the budget, visit YEGcityBudget.ca.