From the Fraser Institute

By Ben Eisen and Austin Thompson

In Cochrane, an ordinary park bench costs between $5,000 and $7,000. The City of Calgary will spend $515 million of taxpayer money to build a new arena for the Flames. Edmonton fire stations cost 63 per cent more than comparable facilities elsewhere—an independent report suggests “the largest portion of the cost premium… is attributed to the City of Edmonton’s Climate Resilience policy.”

According to our recent study, from 2008 (the earliest year of available data) to 2023 (the latest year of data), total spending by municipal governments around the province increased from $3,187 per person to $3,750. That’s an increase of 18 per cent (inflation-adjusted). During the same period, total municipal property tax revenue increased by 13 per cent (inflation-adjusted).

In light of these spending and tax increases, it’s fair to ask—have your local municipal services improved in recent years?

Well, it depends on who you ask. But a 2025 survey conducted by the City of Calgary found that only 46 per cent of residents said they receive “good” value for their property tax dollars (rather than “neutral” or “poor”). Satisfaction with the overall level and quality of municipal services declined from 76 per cent in 2017 to 61 per cent in 2025. And only about 9 per cent of Calgarians want the city to increase taxes beyond the current inflation rate to expand services, with the rest preferring to maintain or reduce taxes.

Albertans in other municipalities share similar concerns. According to a 2024 city survey, the vast majority of Edmontonians said winter road maintenance is “very important” but only 45 per cent report being satisfied with this municipal service. And according to a 2023 survey of citizen satisfaction, only 11 per cent of the residents of Grande Prairie County want to “increase taxes to expand services.”

Meanwhile, evidence of municipal waste is not hard to find.

In Cochrane, an ordinary park bench costs between $5,000 and $7,000. The City of Calgary will spend $515 million of taxpayer money to build a new arena for the Flames—this is splashy corporate welfare with dubious public benefits. Edmonton fire stations cost 63 per cent more than comparable facilities elsewhere—an independent report suggests that “the largest portion of the cost premium… is attributed to the City of Edmonton’s Climate Resilience policy.”

In short, municipal spending has increased significantly but many Albertans do not see how this increase translated into better services that have improved their lives. This should make taxpayers and senior levels of governments skeptical of claims from municipalities that they need even more money to help deliver core services. (For example, Alberta’s municipalities claim they need an additional $30 billion to maintain local infrastructure such as roads, wastewater systems and recreational facilities.)

Are you getting good value for your property tax dollars? For many Albertans, the answer appears to be “no.” Until municipalities can demonstrate that existing resources are being used effectively, calls for even more funding should be met with healthy skepticism.

MxM News

Quick Hit:

At an AI summit in Washington on Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed three executive orders aimed at making the U.S. an “AI export powerhouse” while purging federally funded artificial intelligence models of what he called “woke Marxist lunacy.”

Key Details:

• During remarks at the “Winning the Race” summit, Trump declared: “Once and for all, we are getting rid of woke. Is that OK?” drawing loud applause. He slammed DEI as “toxic ideology” that distorts AI outputs and pledged to eliminate it from all AI tools funded by the federal government.
• One order requires that federally funded AI models be politically neutral, explicitly banning ideological components such as DEI, critical race theory, and so-called unconscious bias. The move pressures developers seeking government contracts to strip their models of left-leaning programming.
• The other orders speed up permitting for AI infrastructure and promote U.S. exports of AI tools. Trump said the initiative is essential to counter China’s ambitions in the sector and called on American companies to “put America first” in the global AI race.

President Trump signs three executive orders on AI:

— Accelerating permitting to build data center infrastructure
— Promoting the export of American AI models abroad
— Protecting Americans from woke AI models driven by Radical Left ideology at the expense of accuracy pic.twitter.com/nxxWi36isL

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 23, 2025

Diving Deeper:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed three sweeping executive orders focused on reshaping the U.S. approach to artificial intelligence, taking aim at what he described as entrenched liberal bias in the industry and ramping up efforts to dominate the global AI landscape.

Speaking from the “Winning the Race” summit in Washington, Trump mocked left-wing influence in AI, decrying what he called “woke Marxist lunacy” embedded in today’s leading models. “Once and for all, we are getting rid of woke. Is that OK?” he said to a room of industry leaders gathered at the Mellon Auditorium. The crowd responded with loud applause.

One of the executive orders, titled Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government, directs that any company receiving federal funding for artificial intelligence must develop politically neutral systems that are free from “ideological dogmas such as DEI.” The order explicitly targets concepts like critical race theory, systemic racism, transgenderism, intersectionality, and unconscious bias—labeling them as distortions of factual output.

Trump also blasted the Biden administration for previously mandating “toxic diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology” as the framework for federal AI development. “So you immediately knew that was the end of your development,” he said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

The order emphasizes that the government “should be hesitant to regulate” private-sector AI models but makes clear that public procurement must be grounded in “truthfulness and accuracy” rather than political goals.

Trump also signed a second order aimed at reducing permitting delays for data centers and scaling back environmental rules that could slow construction. These facilities, which consume vast amounts of energy and water, have drawn criticism from environmental groups and resistance from local communities. The order aligns with calls from major tech companies to ease restrictions on building out AI infrastructure.

A third order prioritizes expanding U.S. AI exports and positions America as a global leader in the emerging sector. The moves accompany the rollout of a 24-page “AI action plan” from the White House, designed to replace Biden-era rules and accelerate AI development by cutting “red tape and onerous regulation.”

“Winning this competition will be a test of our capacities unlike anything since the dawn of the space age,” Trump said. “We need U.S. technology companies to be all-in for America. We want you to put America first.”

He even joked about renaming the technology altogether, saying, “I don’t even like the name… It’s not artificial. It’s genius.”

The Trump administration’s directives come as concerns grow on the right over political bias in AI, especially in generative tools like chatbots and image generators. Elon Musk, a vocal critic of “woke” AI, has pledged to build a politically neutral alternative through his xAI company. His chatbot, Grok, has been accused of promoting antisemitic and white supremacist content in recent months, including pro-Nazi posts and conspiracy theories—leading to internal corrections.