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The municipal portion of property taxes, set to be mailed out to residents in mid-May, equates to an increase of 1.4 per cent with the funding allotted to police, the Valley Line LRT and city services. But with a significant decrease from last year’s education tax portion given to the province, the property tax increase is set to be the lowest in more than 20 years, whichever way council decides to split the savings.

“Effectively what people see, all said and done, will be a modest reduction from their bill last year, which considering that we’re forecasting being anywhere between $90 and $260 million under water on the revenue side, is pretty extraordinary to have it net out with all the other reductions that we’ve made,” Mayor Don Iveson told reporters in the early afternoon. Iveson didn’t address the media after his tax class motion late Monday.

City council unanimously approved further spending reductions by reducing the mayor’s and all councillors expense budgets by 10 per cent, equating to just under $700,000.

‘Heartbreaking’ layoffs

Interim city manager Adam Laughlin announced a second wave of temporary layoffs Monday afternoon, bringing the city’s total layoffs through the COVID-19 pandemic to 2,500. About half of the 900 affected employees Monday work in transit and are losing work as a result of the reduced transit service, Laughlin said. On March 30, the city temporarily laid off 1,600 employees who work in the closed recreation facilities.

Other affected employees work in administrative, analytical, community liaison, human resources, technology, training, and other roles across all city departments. Layoffs and other workforce-related strategies make up 42 per cent of the city’s savings in order to bring down the burden on taxpayers.

“Today’s decision to temporarily lay off more City of Edmonton staff is a difficult one. It’s heartbreaking for staff members, our colleagues, and their families. It’s heartbreaking for decision-makers,” Iveson said.

An added hiccup for the city is the inability to apply a planned 20 per cent unemployment benefit as a result of a federal government cap of $1,000 on topping up the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The CERB gives residents $2,000 a month as a result of being laid off amid COVID-19.

“For some of our employees, that may not meet our previously identified 75 per cent of their salary,” Laughlin said. “We’re strongly encouraging the federal government to reconsider the CERB program for a larger top-up for municipalities so we can honour the agreements that we came to with our union partners and the commitment that we made to our employees.”

The city has also put a freeze on hiring unless it is for a critical position and will continue to redeploy impacted workers if possible. So far the city has found alternative positions for 116 employees laid off in the first wave.