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Athabasca County finally passes tax rate bylaw

Three councillors maintain opposition against minimum tax, now set at $100
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Coun. Gary Cromwell, Coun. Joe Gerlach and Coun. Tracy Holland voted against the passage of Athabasca County's 2022 Tax Rate Bylaw, which will include a $100 minimum tax and an increase of 3.71 per cent across the board. The bylaw was accepted with a 6-3 vote.

ATHABASCA - After much debate and discussion and not without a little confusion, Athabasca County has finally passed a tax rate bylaw for 2022, just ahead of the provincial deadline. 

At the May 10 meeting, council was presented with seven scenarios with the majority agreeing to a $100 minimum tax and an increase of 3.71 per cent across the board, but not before each councillor had their say on the proposals. 

“I know we all want to make the right decision but it's important that we actually make a decision,” said reeve Brian Hall before opening the discussion. “And when a decision is made, I hope we can all resolve to accept that the decision is the final outcome, to speak with a single voice and support the decision of council regardless of which way we vote. It's the right of the minority, of course, to register their dissent and to voice that dissent, but it's also the right of the majority to prevail.” 

Hall went on to say he supported a $150 minimum tax and flat increase. 

“In my view, based on the discussions that I've had, a minimum in that $150 range is not unreasonable,” he said. “And again, if it's worth owning or controlling, surely, it's worth $10 to $12 a month. I don't really think that's asking for too much.” 

Coun. Gary Cromwell was the most vocal of the three councillors who voted against along with Coun. Tracy Holland and Coun. Joe Gerlach, who opposed any minimum tax. 

“I definitely support scenario #1 with no minimum tax and an equal tax increase across the board of 4.28 per cent,” said Cromwell. “I think that if you look at scenario #2 with a flat minimum tax, you're still looking at a 4.15 per cent tax increase. Even scenario three with $100 minimum tax (it’s) 3.71 (per cent). We're talking about a 0.5 per cent difference in that.” 

Coun. Camille Wallach said it was the decisions of past councils which led to this moment, and they should have been proactive in dealing with properties who were costing more than they were contributing. 

“We need to have everybody pay their fair share, which if we're taxing people ... $0.67, they're not even paying for the stamp to send it out,” she said. “So, we need to look at that as well. We can't have people paying for other people's administration costs to send out their taxes.” 

Coun. Rob Minns, Coun. Kelly Chamzuk and Coun. Natasha Kapitaniuk all agreed a minimum tax was important and would consider scenarios #3 or #4. 

For reference, minimum taxes in surrounding areas are County of Barrhead, $50, Municipal District (MD) of Opportunity, $400 for residential and non-residential, Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo, no minimum tax, the County of St. Paul and MDs of Bonnyville and Sturgeon County all $25, County of Lac La Biche, $25 on farmland, Lesser Slave River, $50 on farmland only, counties of Parkland, Smoky Lake and Westlock all $50, Lac St. Anne County, $75, and Thorhild County, $200. 

“Are you prepared to go home and tell everybody, your ratepayer, your family, why we became the second highest across-the-board tax overnight?” asked Cromwell. “I don't think that's fair.” 

Holland and Gerlach said there should be public consultation done but did not make a motion to set a budget or ask administration to research the costs. 

“We have a problem with some of these anomalies where people aren't paying enough tax so let's deal with those,” said Gerlach who provided no other details on how he would like to deal with them in a way that wouldn’t include a minimum tax. 

Minns, however, did not foresee a problem with it, saying people spend more on less all the time. 

“It's just a minimum tax,” he said. “We're not asking people to pay thousands and thousands of dollars. I have no problem with getting people to pay $100. They'll go down the street and they'll grab coffee every day or they do a lot of stuff that they pay for, and they have no problem with that.” 

Cromwell made a motion to amend the original motion from April 27 when council did first and second reading to be based on scenario #1 and Coun. Ashtin Anderson made a motion to amend Cromwell’s amendment to be based on scenario #3. 

“There are costs associated with assessment and the administration of our tax notices and at the very least, I believe that each tax notice that is sent out should contribute some net revenue to the operation of the county,” said Anderson. “Therefore, that's why I believe that scenario #3 is fair today.”

The motion to amend the amendment passed 6-3.

Scenario #3 by the numbers 

In the background information supplied by director of corporate services Nicole Cherniwchan, it was noted the total assessed value of residential property increased 2132.72 per cent from $44,983.520 in 2021 to $1,004,357,400 with $34,153,770 from growth and $21,298,450 due to inflation. 

Farmland was not impacted by inflation but did drop in assessment value by $136,690 or –0.205 per cent from $66,618,750 to $66,482,060. 

There will be a flat increase to all assessment classes of 3.71 per cent and a $100 minimum tax meaning anyone currently being taxed below $100 will now be paying the minimum. 

“The lowest assessment for titled farmland is $20, which is for one acre of wooded pasture,” Cherniwchan said in the report. “The highest assessment for titled farmland is $36,320, which is a 158-acre parcel of cultivated land.” 

With approximately 2,400 properties falling into that category, it is expected to generate $123,607 in revenue and with a 3.71 per cent increase across all categories, the average residential property with an assessed value of $200,000 would pay $891 in taxes. 

“If this property realized the average inflationary increase of 2.12 per cent it would realize a tax increase of $50 from 2021,” said Cherniwchan. 

Also, every $100,000 assessed in non-residential, linear, and machinery and equipment will generate $1.491 in municipal taxes, up by $53, or 3.69 per cent, from 2021. 

The tax rate bylaw passed under scenario #3 by a margin of 6-3 with Cromwell, Holland, and Gerlach voting against. 

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