Edmonton’s mayor is hopeful that new efforts to prepare industrial land for development and a tax incentive program will spur more investment. The city has allocated $23 million to prepare industrial land, reducing the amount of infrastructure builders will need to install and making sites “shovel-ready (to) allow for new investment, new job creation, new tax revenue that didn’t exist before,” Mayor Andrew Knack said Wednesday. Knack spoke after city council’s executive committee heard an update on the Industrial Investment Action Plan, which council adopted two years ago. “This goes back to when we said economic development is one of council’s four strategic priorities,” Knack told reporters during a break at city hall. “This allows us to put those words into action in a significant and meaningful way, which will help with affordability, which will help with sustainability, and will also help us deliver on the basics because you’re going to create new opportunities to be able to fund those basic services.” The city will spend $9 million on the program in 2029 and $14 million in 2030. The funding will support 10 of 33 industrial projects and is expected to generate an additional $6.7 million in tax revenue starting in 2030. Under the tax incentive program, the city will reduce property taxes on new industrial buildings by 25 per cent over three years, similar to a program used in Calgary. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson
