Lloydminster’s 2027 municipal budget survey tells residents that introducing public transit would raise taxes by four to six per cent.
The city’s own transit study, completed in 2024, put the cheapest option at one per cent.
BorderPulse asked the City of Lloydminster to explain the gap. The city’s written response did not include the numbers behind its updated estimate.
What the survey asks
The 2027 Municipal Budget Survey asks residents to choose between maintaining current city spending or accepting a four to six per cent tax increase to introduce a public transportation system.
The survey does not name any specific service options. It does not reference the city’s 2024 Public Transportation Master Plan, and it does not disclose that lower-cost alternatives were studied.
What the 2024 plan found
The Public Transportation Master Plan evaluated four service options for Lloydminster. Their ongoing tax impacts, as stated in the plan, were:
Option 1 (on-demand service): one per cent
Option 2: three per cent
Option 3: three per cent
Option 4 (high-level fixed-route service): six per cent ongoing, nine per cent in year one
Three of the four options fall well below the range presented in this year’s survey. Only the most expensive option, Option 4, reaches the survey’s stated range, and only on an ongoing basis after a higher first-year cost.
Our question
Border Pulse sent the City of Lloydminster three questions last month, asking why the survey’s tax range did not reflect the full scope of options in the master plan, who developed the survey questions, and whether the city considers the survey’s framing accurate.
City administration provided the following explanation.
“The 4 to 6 per cent tax increase presented in the 2027 Municipal Budget Survey is not tied to a specific option identified in the 2024 Transit Master Plan,” the city said in its written response.
The city said the range was instead built from updated cost estimates meant to cover either an on-demand or fixed-route transit model, and that the survey questions were developed by Administration through its standard public engagement process.
“Administration considers the options put forward to be an accurate representation of the potential cost of implementing public transit based on the updated cost estimates and industry information available,” the response said.
What’s still missing
The city’s response confirmed the four to six per cent range is not based on the 2024 master plan. It did not provide the updated cost figures, or explain how those figures were converted into a tax impact.
The response also said full implementation estimates cannot be confirmed until a service model is chosen and a detailed plan is finalized.
For comparison, the city’s 2026 budget documents show a net increase of roughly $2.15 million in Protective Services costs, which the city characterized as about three per cent of that year’s tax pressure, as previously reported by BorderPulse.
The City of Lloydminster has not said what its updated transit cost estimates are, or when that information might be made public.
Read more: Lloydminster group looking to Fill major transit gap
That increase maybe because of amount the city pay to taxi companies for senior subsidy for them to use the taxi’s !
Like from lodges like pioneer etc!