ATHABASCA – Ratepayers in Athabasca County will see an increase to their property taxes this year, although how much depends on what the land is used for.
At their May 9 meeting, councillors voted 9-0 in favour of passing the 2023 tax rate bylaw, also known as Bylaw 004-2023, which see residential taxes raised two per cent, going from a mill rate of 0.00445 to 0.00454. Farmland is going up five per cent, with the mill rate increasing to 0.013 from its 2022 value of 0.012. Lastly, non-residential rates increase from 0.0149 to 0.0168, which is a 12.8 per cent jump. These increases are in part due the increasing inflation rates in the country, according to reeve Brian Hall, as well as ensure that the municipality has enough money to continue to develop new and replace old infrastructure.
“Over the past year, through the budget process, and the number of infrastructure failures we’ve had, council realized the need to set aside money for projects, like bridges or other infrastructure needs that our residents have,” said Hall in a May 10 interview. “We can’t do that without having adequate funds in hand to pay for those services. We’ve got a significant amount of infrastructure work to do in the 12 months, and beyond that, so it’s important that we budget carefully, and keep pace with inflation. If we don’t make at least some move (on taxes), it really moves us backwards.”
The increase to the residential rate means that for every $100,000 of assessment, an owner will see an increase of $8.90 on their taxes. The increase will net the county an additional $396,814, from residential properties for a total of $4,862,257.
The county is expected to generate $28,314,120 from taxes in 2023, which increased by $5,994,327 from the $22,319,793 in 2022 — $22,543, 414 of that will come from a group of taxes that are largely classified as non-residential, which includes machinery and equipment, linear, and non-residential. This group of taxes was raised by 12.8 per cent, as council continues to increase five-to-one ratio prescribed by the Municipal Government Act (MGA).
Under the MGA, municipalities are capped on how high they can raise taxes. Part of that cap is a five-to-one ratio, which states that no tax can be more than five times the residential rate.
Currently, with the non-residential mill rate sits at 0.0168, and the residential rate is 0.0045 — the county is at a 3.7:1 ratio, which they plan to continue to increase until it’s closer to 4:1.
“The non-residential rate has increased slightly faster than the residential rate to begin the adjustments to fix a structural gap in our tax rate strategies,” said Hall. “Municipalities will look to compare the relationship between their lowest and highest rates, and council has made a conscientious choice to increase the gap between those two, while remaining competitive. And when you analyze it, we do remain lower than our neighbors.”
Requisitions
This year the county will collect $5,629,548 for the Alberta School Foundation Fund (ASFF), which pools revenue received from property taxes — $2,619,456 comes from residential properties, $162,608 comes from farmland, and the remaining $2,847,484 coming from linear, and non-residential properties.
The county also collects a requisition for the Greater North Foundation (GNF) who provide affordable housing for citizens in 14 municipalities, including the county, Town of Athabasca, and Village of Boyle. This year, $287,299 will be collected in the county, which goes towards the foundation’s general operating expenses.
Finally, $95,311 will be collected for the designated industrial property requisition, which covers facilities regulated by the Alberta Energy Regulator, Canadian Energy Regulator, and the Alberta Utilities Commission and any associated land improvements, linear properties like wells, pipelines, telecommunications and electric power systems, or property designated a major plant by provincial assessors.
It’s important to note that these requisitions do not represent additional income for the county, nor do they represent any kind of control over the organizations as the municipality collects the money and then passes it along.
