ATHABASCA — After 23 official appeals from commercial ratepayers who saw increases on their 2025 assessment, Town of Athabasca councillors heard from municipal assessor Travis Horne to explain the unexpected shift in property values, which he credits to changes in the market and in standard best practices.
Horne, with Municipal Assessment Service Group, presented virtually to town councillors July 15 after elected officials requested more information on the process of assessment on behalf of concerned locals.
But while councillors agreed the presentation clarified grey areas on the assessment process, it also highlighted the limit of their influence.
“There’s not much that council can have control over there,” said Mayor Rob Balay.
Since assessments were sent out May, Horne said 13 unique ratepayers within the town have contacted his office with concerns about the numbers for 40 different properties. CAO Rachel Ramey said 23 official complaints have been filed, all commercial.
“I’ve been on council for almost eight years now and this is by far the most activity we’ve had for appeals that are going to be coming,” said Balay.
This year marks Horne’s first as the town’s assessor after taking over for the late Dan Kanuka. Horne told councillors the reason for the unexpected changes ratepayers have seen can be explained by market shifts, and also in part by the passing of the torch in Athabasca and other similar-sized towns in Alberta.
“We are seeing, I don’t want to call it a correction for this year, I want to say it’s more of a normalization,” he said.
“When (Kanuka) would look at land sales, he would limit himself to just the sales of bare, vacant land,” said Horne. “My view is that there are opportunities for us to increase our data set to better reflect the market.”
Instead of only looking at the value of vacant land, Horne is now using the residual land-sales process, which identifies the value of any improvements, in addition to the value of the land if it was vacant.
“Without doing that, we would have had … without getting into the nitty gritty of it, a somewhat unreliable pool of observations to determine the land value,” said Horne. He added in certain sectors, like retail space, assessments had been between 50 to 60 per cent below sale value.
Coun. Jon LeMessurier questioned Horne on shifts in the market, and said in conversations with real estate agents he heard assessment values have exceeded what buyers will pay for property, especially vacant land with no improvements.
“Athabasca, I’d love to say it’s a booming town but it’s just not, for commercial or residential right now. We’ve seen very little growth,” said LeMessurier.
“When I talked to the Realtors on some of these assessed values of these properties, they said there’s just no way they can sell those properties for anywhere close to that, and they also mentioned that usually assessed value is about 20 per cent less than market value.”
Horne said assessment values are based on the real estate market as of last year, not what’s for sale and selling now, and noted sales data used to determine values come only from within the municipal boundaries of the town, not other areas of the province.
He added assessors have access to more sales data than agents do, catching cash deals through land titles that often miss the internal Realtor database.
He also pointed out factors like the land value in a particular area of town, unique or uncommon improvements to property, and even the style and type of build can affect assessment numbers and discrepancies between neighbours and neighbourhoods.
“I’ve always worked on the assumption that assessment is under market value,” said Coun. Sara Graling. “The Realtors have that perception, I had that perception working as a lender, that assessment was always soft compared to market value.”
“For many years, the assessment has been under the market value, and this community and our taxpayers have benefited from that,” she added.
Property taxes and official assessment complaints were due on June 30, but Horne said any town ratepayers with concerns can still get in touch with his office around assessment concerns and possible adjustments.
While he said he’s willing to work with most concerns and re-evaluate assessments if new data is provided, there is a limit to what information Horne can provide himself.
“Often when there’s a dissatisfied ratepayer, they take what I have to say with a grain of salt, so I make sure to give them third-party arm’s length resources to help guide them,” said Horne.
He said forms, which he worked with town administration to develop last year, are available on the municipal website to request more resources about individual assessments, and recent changes to the Municipal Government Act allow Albertans an avenue for access to assessment information for their properties and similar ones within the assessment base.
“I’ve made sure to advise the ratepayer of their rights, and I’ve actually, in every case that I can recall, provided them resources published not by myself but by the province online, explaining and outlining how these information requests occur, on what timeline, what information they can expect to receive.”
Ratepayers can also receive reports on the details of their property and provide any new information or update existing data to better reflect reality.
"I always ask them, I say, ‘Look, you know your property better than anybody else, please review these and let me know if there’s an issue,’” said Horne. “For example, if we have an incorrect amount of basement finish or for whatever reason they knocked out a garage and it’s not there anymore.”
“Oftentimes, those are issues that are very easy to address because it’s a data issue. I’m happy to make those adjustments,” said Horne. “And if you find sales or assessments of properties similar to yours that are lower, either of those can help reduce your value.”
But one thing assessors don’t make a habit of is sharing all the additional sales and data used to make valuations with ratepayers. While they are avenues to access it through the province, Horne said laying everything on the table can be a double-edged sword for assessors.
He said if the documents assessors provide support the assessment and a ratepayer decides not to appeal, and then later finds sales that would have affected their value, the assessor can be blamed for ratepayers losing out on an appeal.
On the other hand, if assessors set values, and then provide ratepayers with sales and information that would support a reduction, councils and municipalities would face budget consequences and ratepayers may call into question the veracity of the original assessments.
He stressed any ratepayers with concerns, even those who did not file a formal complaint or appeal before the deadline, can reach out to him for a discussion. Appellants will have a chance to present their case to the appeal board, but even those who submitted formal complaints can have their issues addressed before a meeting is scheduled.
“There’s no service to the public forcing everybody to go to a hearing when the data is right in front of me and I can just call administration and explain what’s going on and we can make that adjustment.”
Councillors around the table were thankful to get an explanation from Horne, but did note the next group of elected officials could encounter challenges in trying to reverse this year’s tax rate increases to offset the additional $32 million in assessment for the town.
“For council, it’s going to be difficult to lower the mill rate, because then it’s going to affect all the other ones that weren’t affected,” Balay said. “You can’t give a mill rate for the East Hill and a mill rate for the South Hill and a mill rate for the west end. It puts council in a tough spot for that.”
Councillors voted unanimously to pass all three readings of a new assessment review board bylaw. The previous version of the bylaw, passed in 2018, appointed a regional assessment review board, while the new legislation establishes the town’s own boards for both commercial and resident appeals to allow for faster scheduling of the 23 hearings.
