New council, same budget
I sat down this week expecting the first budget meeting of our newly elected council to bring changes. Not dramatic change, but at least some clear sign that the 2026 draft budget, created by the previous council before the election, would be reshaped to reflect the mandates and promises councillors brought to the campaign trail. Voters were told that priorities would be different. That spending would be reviewed. That the tone and direction of municipal decisions would shift.
So imagine my surprise when I opened Nick Allen’s budget coverage and realized that nothing in the 2026 budget changed. Not one line. The newly elected council dissected the plan built by their predecessors and then approved it exactly as written. For all the talk during the election about reining things in and doing things differently, this first major decision tells a very different story.
And frankly, I am thrilled.
The simplest conclusion is the most accurate one. The previous council appears to have done a pretty good job. They built a budget grounded in the idea that a vibrant community needs recreation, needs reinvestment in public spaces and needs long term planning that outlives election cycles. This new council, after reviewing every line item, agreed.
Take recreation. For years, that file has been an easy political football. Yet when it came time to review the 2026 budget, the new council kept those investments in place. The revitalization of Gazebo Park is still moving forward. The funding for programs and facilities that help make this a livable community remains intact. These were priorities strongly supported by the former council. They are now, clearly, supported by the current one too.
Even more surprising was the approval of the fire practise building. Anyone who watched the election chatter knows this file was controversial. Yet here we are. A new council with a mandate to examine spending decided the project is necessary and worthwhile. It survived the budget review without a single adjustment. That tells me the previous council’s rationale was stronger than some critics wanted to admit.
The approved budget will result in a 0.26 percent municipal tax increase. The final number for property owners will not be known until the Alberta School Foundation Fund (ASFF) rate is set for 2026. Last year, the ASFF portion increased by 18 percent. It would not be surprising to see another significant increase this year as the province continues addressing pressures in the education system. That levy is controlled by the province and will also be affected by the substantial rise in assessments across the Crowsnest Pass.What stands out most in this budget story is how quickly the political narrative has shifted. During the election, some groups in the community worked overtime to paint the former council as reckless spenders who had lost sight of fiscal responsibility. Yet when the newly elected council had the opportunity to overhaul that same budget, they did not. They agreed with it. They endorsed it. They passed it.
That says far more than campaign slogans ever will.
It also bears repeating that two councillors from the previous council ran again and were voted back in. Voters chose continuity. They chose experience. They chose people who helped craft the very budget this new council just approved. If the community truly believed the narrative that the former council was made up of money spending zealots, the election results would have looked very different.
Instead, we now have a new council that campaigned on change and started its term by validating the work of the previous one. That is not a criticism. It is a compliment. It shows that the long view matters. It shows that budgets built thoughtfully can stand on their own merits, no matter who sits in the chairs around the council table.
Most importantly, it is a win for the Crowsnest Pass.
Good decisions deserve to carry forward, no matter who gets credit. This week, council proved that.