Significant support for limiting tax hikes to the inflation rate (78 per cent of responses) and holding a referendum prior to tax dollars going to build a new NHL arena (63 per cent of responses)

Calgary Survey Results

EDMONTON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released today the results of a six question survey sent to each Edmonton candidate running for civic office in the October 18^th municipal election.

The majority of candidates running for election responded to the CTF survey, including incumbents Stephen Mandel, Ed Gibbons, Karen Leibovici, Tony Caterina and Don Iveson.

Of the candidates who responded, 78 per cent answered YES when asked if they support limiting annual property tax bill hikes to Edmonton’s inflation rate (under 1 per cent currently).

“Clearly there are a lot of candidates in this election who understand Edmontonians have seen more than their fair share of tax hikes over the past few of years,” stated CTF-Alberta director Scott Hennig. “Tax hikes above the inflation rate put those Edmontonians on fixed incomes – like many seniors – in a position of having their disposable incomes eroded year after year.”

Sixty three per cent of candidates who responded indicated they believed a referendum should be held prior to city council spending a significant amount of tax dollars on a new NHL arena in Edmonton. Only seven respondents, including incumbent mayor Stephen Mandel indicated they did not favour a referendum. Incumbents Ed Gibbons and Tony Caterina both indicated they supported a referendum.

“Polls have shown that Edmontonians are not sold on the need for their tax dollars to be used to buy Oilers owner, Daryl Katz, a new NHL arena, so we’re hopeful the next council will give Edmontonians the opportunity to approve or reject any deal that taps into their wallets,” continued Hennig.

Half of respondents further indicated they did not support using tax dollars (including the Community Revitalization Levy scheme) to pay for a new NHL arena. Only four candidates indicated they did support taxpayer funding, with another 14 candidates indicating they were undecided.

“It’s encouraging to see so many candidates clearly understand the fact that all of the new NHL arenas in Canada that were built over the past 20 years were done so with virtually 100 per cent private financing,” continued Hennig. “This isn’t the USA where taxpayers and politicians are often easily bullied into buying new arenas and stadiums for billionaire owners.”

Only 53 per cent of the respondents indicated they would be voluntarily disclosing their campaign contributions before the October 18^th vote. This is considerably lower than in Calgary where 72 per cent of respondents agreed to pre-election disclosure.

In fact, all of the main contenders for mayor in Calgary have already disclosed their donors, as have number of incumbent Calgary aldermen and serious candidates.

“Disclosure and transparency seem to have taken a backseat to other issues in Edmonton, whereas they are front and centre in Calgary,” continued Hennig. “This is one battle of Alberta that Calgary is clearly winning.”

A chart of candidate responses can be found here: /media/Complete%20Results%20-%20Edmonton.pdf

A selection of candidates’ full responses will be posted on our blog at: http://www.taxpayer.com/blog/12-10-2010/edmonton-candidate-survey-responses.