With less than 12 hours left in 2016, the Town of Athabasca passed all three readings of its tax rate bylaw at a special meeting on Dec. 31.
The previous tax rate bylaw passed May 3. Council had passed its budget “in principle in Dec. 2015, but only passed the official 2016 budget on Dec. 20, which was after the tax rate bylaw had been approved.
Interim chief administrative officer Doug Topinka said the new motion to approve the tax rate bylaw had to be passed before 2016 ended, hence the special Saturday council meeting.
“Basically, it is a process to ensure that our tax levy is solid for 2016,” Topinka said at the meeting.
“Just to be on the safe side, it was thought that we’re better to repass it at this time just to ensure everything is correct,” he said after the meeting.
He also added the town had tried to contact Municipal Affairs last week, but there were no advisors available.
“We finally came to the decision that – just to be safe – that we would do this,” he said.
The motion that passed was the same as the one that passed in May, and only the bylaw number and the date on the bylaw changed.
“The bylaw’s identical, except for the new number and the reading dates,” Topinka said.
Councillors Joanne Peckham and Steve Schafer were at the meeting in person. Councillors Tanu Evans and Tim Verhaeghe and Mayor Roger Morrill phoned into the meeting. Coun. Shelly Gurba was absent.
All members of council voted in favour of all three readings of the tax rate bylaw.
The bylaw brought the general municipal residential tax rate up to 7.7013 per cent, and the non-residential and machinery and equipment rates to 16.2104 per cent.
In May, Peckham, Gurba, Adams and Evans voted in favour of the third reading, while Schafer and Morrill voted against it.
