WESTLOCK – Although scheduled for final reading at tonight's Town of Westlock council meeting, the fate of Bylaw 2020-24 Taxation of Designated Manufactured Homes remains uncertain.
First presented in December where it received two readings, councillors expressed more concerns during a 20-minute discussion about the proposed edict at the town’s March 15 committee of the whole meeting — the bylaw would see the owners of the community’s three manufactured home parks pay the associated municipal taxes on the trailers within them.
After first debating whether just to walk away from the bylaw, which meant it would have been on the books for two years stuck at second reading, council voted 6-1 (Coun. John Shoemaker against) to rise and report on the bylaw at the March 22 meeting — bylaws can only be discussed at COW and not enacted.
“I just think that we benefit from the taxes and use them to serve our citizens and it should be us that’s collecting them. I think that’s part of the duties of the municipality,” stated mayor Ralph Leriger. “Is one particular group sometimes more onerous (to collect taxes from) than the others, yeah maybe.”
Added Coun. Murtaza Jamaly: “At the end of the day tax collection is the responsibility of the municipality. I think it would be unfair to transfer this burden to the landowner (of the parks).”
Section 4.1 of the proposed edict clearly spells out its intent: “When the Town of Westlock assesses a designated manufactured home and any other improvements on a site in a manufactured home park within the Town of Westlock’s taxation boundaries, the registered owner of the manufactured home park shall be the assessed person with respect to each designated manufactured home within the particular manufactured home park and that owner shall be responsible for payment of taxes as the assessed person.”
CAO Simone Wiley said they had a good discussion with the mobile home park owners and were told that not only are they concerned about having to remit the tax payments to the municipality, they don’t have a legal mechanism to collect those taxes if a trailer owner doesn’t pay. Admin’s presentation to council also noted the owners felt it would be difficult to adjust the lot rent of the individual owners to reflect the tax component.
“I think what you said about their inability to collect is a really important piece. The town has more tools in its arsenal for collecting tax arrears and utility arrears then an individual landowner of a manufactured home park. So, I do struggle with this bylaw a bit,” added Jamaly.
“I understand the administrative efficiencies and the time it would save and that we would likely be able to recover more taxes, but at the same time I believe the collection of the individual taxes should still be the responsibility of the town, not the landowner.”
Added Coun. David Truckey: “I have struggled with this quite a bit through the course of the conversation and appreciated what administration has been able to gather from all the sources, but I’m agreeing with Coun. Jamaly in that we’re passing this burden from the municipality to the landowner and that is quite concerning to me.”
Currently park owners pay property taxes on the entirety of the land of the park, while the homeowners pay taxes on their trailers, plus whatever lot fee is charged by the park owner. In the original bylaw presentation to council, Wiley noted there’s 138 tax accounts in the parks, which would be paired down to three if the change is made.
“I’ve always felt that we should be trying to help our administration to reduce their burden and if this was a rental apartment where they were being charged $20 or $40 or $50 a month for a parking stall there’d be no issue with it being added to the rent,” countered Shoemaker.
“So, I don’t see why they can’t add $20 to the (lot) rent and if the guy doesn’t want to pay it they boot him out.”
Added Coun. Curtis Snell: “I agree with Coun. Shoemaker, they’re collecting rent anyways it shouldn’t be too much of a burden to collect that money in addition to the rent.”
Wiley said the park owners requested administration to look into the possibility of requiring all trailer owners to enter into the monthly tax payment program — an option the town said isn’t viable and has the potential to cause a greater financial implication if a payment is missed and NSF fees are incurred. The briefing to council also notes that in conversations with other municipalities, some do not allow manufactured homeowners to participate in a monthly tax installment payment plan due to the historical number of NSF fees accumulating.
“We felt this would compound the problem potentially for a lot of owners. If you don’t make your monthly fee, whether it’s for $20 or $100, you still incur an NSF fee from your bank and then incur that fee from the town. So, potentially a manufactured homeowner could be in a worse situation by being on a monthly tax payment program,” said Wiley.
In December Wiley told council that there are a “handful” of municipalities, including High Level where she previously worked, that have similar edicts. Admin has also stated previously that the proposed change would cut the delay of transfer of ownership information from landowners, which can hinder tax collection, eliminate any tax recovery on property not associated to the land and align tax collection with utility collection. In admin’s briefing it notes that the municipality has 11 properties currently in the tax recovery process and four of those are in the manufactured home parks.
“There is some concern with the amount concentrated in the manufactured homes parks when compared to the rest of the residential tax roll in town,” said Wiley.
