Budget Time - Find Out How Much They Will Gouge You Next Year!

So we’re pouring more money into the RCMP—who were barely seen around the city in 2025—than into Red Deer Firefighters and paramedics, even after their budget was slashed by $600,000 and their hours were cut so much that Station 2 was routinely shut down at night.

Then there’s another 8% for municipal police—probably peace officers and bylaw enforcement. Maybe it’s time we invested more in them and less in the RCMP? Something I already proposed for downtown during the summer. More visible law enforcement and city ambassadors to reduce crime (passive deterrence by presence) and encourage tourism. I guess the good thing about spending over $39 Million on the RCMP each year means that we should, in theory, have $39 Million to spend on our own police force when the RCMP leaves.

We’re spending 8% on City Administration—the same as on City Transit, which saw routes cut in 2020 and never brought back. This is another reason I proposed outsourcing things like: Economic Development and Tourism to independent NGOs.

City Planning and Growth gets 7%? Really? So what exactly is that—quiet perks for developers? If that funding actually went toward surveying, servicing, and preparing lots so they’re truly development-ready, I’d have no issue with it… but something tells me that’s not what’s happening. We know it's not the City Development Plan, that's over 13 years old now.

Recreation and Community 11% - so let's see, we have Heritage Ranch where they canceled the contract under a cloud of controversy (or do they consider that Parks, not going to bother looking it up since this is all 2025 anyway). There's the Collicutt Center which is constantly experiencing maintenance issues.
Parks takes 9% (which saw cutbacks to services this summer), and Roads and Maintenance another 9%. But hold on—didn’t a councillor claim during the forums that 21% goes to emergency services? Turns out he was talking about the RCMP portion by itself. Overall, we’re at 45% for emergency services, and honestly, aside from maybe the RCMP’s share, that still feels fairly reasonable. In the end, what price do you put on someone’s life?

I hope we see the survey again this month that we did earlier asking Red Deerians where they want their tax dollars to go. I think you might see some surprising changes over last year.
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