Edmonton's 2025 civic election will cost an extra $4.8M under Bill 20 changes, city says
Alberta's Bill 20 includes a suite of changes to the rules for municipal elections
City of Edmonton officials are projecting nearly $5 million in extra costs to run next year's civic election because of a host of new rules from the Alberta government.
The province's Bill 20, expected to come into force this fall, includes a suite of changes to the Local Authorities Election Act, which governs how cities and towns conduct votes for local councils and school boards.
The legislation has been the subject of backlash from municipal leaders and councils, including in Edmonton. When it comes to local elections, Bill 20 will ban automated vote tabulator machines, require a permanent voter register and open the door for political parties at the municipal level, among other changes.
City council will see a report Wednesday that says additional staff, materials and monitoring to deal with the changes adds up to $4.8 million in 2025, and nearly $1 million more in ongoing costs the following year.
The budget bump takes into account about $1.2 million the city will save by cancelling the contract with the company that provides Edmonton's vote tabulators.
But that change is actually the costliest for next year's vote, according to projections: it means hiring 1,230 more advance and election-day workers to count ballots by hand, plus bringing in additional equipment, at a cost of $2.6 million.
"Automated voting equipment has been used to count ballots in Edmonton elections for more than two decades," the report says.
"Increased costs are associated with the legislative requirements to use separate ballots and ballot boxes for each election — mayor, councillors and school board trustees — which did not apply to elections conducted with automated voting equipment."
A hand count will take four times the number of ballot boxes compared to what was originally planned, and the city will have to rent a larger space to be able to accommodate the work.
In a statement Monday, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver told CBC News that the province passed the changes — including the tabulator ban — last spring, and that gives municipalities time to prepare.
"It is important for Albertans to feel they can trust the methods and results of local elections and requiring all ballots to be counted by hand will bolster their trust in the election outcome, which is better for democracy," McIver said.
Province will look at ways to defray city costs: premier
At last week's Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer, a resolution calling for a reversal of the ban on vote-counting machines was passed after 85 per cent of delegates voted in favour. The resolution had been sponsored by the City of St. Albert.
Speaking at the convention, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said these are additional expenses the government should be trying to avoid.
"$2.6 million is just part of [the cost] that we are going to be paying for the implementation of Bill 20, which was never required, asked by municipalities, and never was needed by municipalities," Sohi said.
Besides scrapping tabulators, the city report says Edmonton will be spending more to maintain a new voting register, as well as manage candidate registration and financial disclosures.
Not only will political parties be allowed for the first time in the Edmonton and Calgary elections under Bill 20, but candidates will be allowed to collect campaign donations outside a local election year.
As a result, local authorities will have to manage annual financial disclosures from registered candidates.
Sohi said if the province insists on getting rid of vote tabulators, they should be willing to pick up the tab.
A report by City of Red Deer administration on the tabulator ban found the changes for the next election might cost almost $1.5 million.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek has said the city clerk's office has made preliminary estimates that not using vote tabulators would cost the city at least $1.3 million in the next election.
Premier Danielle Smith said last week that her government has asked municipalities that use tabulators for a statement of their projected local election costs when they return to hand counts.
"We'll work with those municipalities … to see what we can do to defray the cost," Smith said.
"But we're not prepared to ask them to do something that we're not doing ourselves. We'll be debating doing the same thing at the provincial level when the Elections Act changes come through next spring."
McIver's statement seems to shut the door on any financial help from the province.
"Conducting municipal elections has always been a cost for the municipality to bear and that has not changed," he said.
Smith said issues with a long wait for results in the 2023 provincial election, plus feedback that "people want to go back to counting ballots the old-fashioned way" is driving the removal of tabulators.
The next municipal election is set for Oct. 20, 2025.
Bill 20's proclamation will launch the official municipal campaign period, and candidates will be able to submit written notice that they're planning to run.
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