Dear Editor,
I’m a senior citizen, I have been farming in the County of Barrhead, Alberta for 58 years. I have paid my fair share of taxes to the County for 53 years on a considerable amount of farmland. I have also helped develop the community by clearing, breaking and improving 224 acres of crop land.
An issue that the county and their hired assessors imposed upon me this past summer leaves me very concerned about two things that are happening in this area.
1. taxing of shelterbelts
2. Mexican justice system, which the County of Barrhead has implemented.
In 1961 which was 53 years ago, I was expanding our main yard and feedlot. In the process of doing this, I established a 13 acre shelterbelt, which was next to the yard for protection.
Over the past 53 years this shelterbelt has been a real blessing and has been used as bush pasture for livestock and this year to three large Holstein steers, five horses, one donkey and one lama.
For the past 53 years this shelterbelt bush pasture has been taxed at the same rate as any other pasture or cropland in the area. This year when I received my tax notice for this shelterbelt I was surprised to see the taxes not doubled, not increased 10 times but increased by 20 times.
When I met with the assessor, which the county had hired, to find out the reason for this drastic increase in the taxes, he explained to me that he had found a “loophole” in the Municipal Act whereby the municipality can tax a shelterbelt like mine at the same rate as a residence with people living in it.
I’m very concerned as to what this could do for the future of shelterbelts in our county and the province, as well as our County Service Board Shelterbelt Program, where as they supply trees and a planter to encourage shelterbelts.
In view of this concern I told the assessor I would appeal this to the Assessment Review Board for a hearing. The assessor indicated he had no qualms about me doing so and the assessor indicated that the county management would be backing him (little did I know to what extent), so now, not only do I have the assessor against me but also the County Council.
From past experience (two times) the Assessment Review Board consisted of three unbiased, impartial people appointed from outside of our jurisdiction, by the Provincial Municipal Affairs Department. However, this time it seems like the county management appointed the members on the Assessment Review Board. When I attended the Sept. 22, 2014 review, I found out to my dismay that the County had appointed “themselves” which consisted of three of their Councillors as judge and jury, conflict of interest to the ninth degree. Need I tell you what the decision was?
I considered this to be “Mexican Justice,” a system that would put a smile on the face of a dictator like Vladimir Putin.
I was disappointed in the three councillors that were asked to sit on this Assessment Review Board. Not one of them had the integrity or the intestinal fortitude to say that this was not right and they would not be a part of this injustice and the breakdown of democracy that was being perpetrated here. I was always given to believe that in a democracy like Canada, “the best county in the world” it was enshrined in the constitution that every citizen of Canada is entitled to a fair trial. What happened here?
When I received the written decision about two weeks later and read it, there were a number of things written in it that made it seem to me that it could have been written a week or two before the hearing.
When I discussed this situation with the Reeve of the County he agreed that no shelterbelt should be taxed this way and the way the county administration handled the hearing was very wrong and unjust but has shown very little concern about changing it.
When I brought this to the attention of the Provincial Municipal Affairs Department, Mr. Tyler Batty, he mentioned that they were well aware of this “loophole” as it has been used by another assessor in another jurisdiction and assured me that this will be changed and rectified. He also mentioned that this has to be done by provincial legislation which is going to take time, especially with a provincial election in the offering.
When I talked to the Provincial Court of Queen’s Bench, Patrick, I was told it would probably cost a minimum of approximately $600 to apply for Leave to Appeal, plus other personal costs, and lawyer expenses, etc. Patrick also indicated that a Leave to Appeal may not be granted on these grounds (only an error on a question of law may be appealed).
My next step to rectifying these wrongs will be contact the Alberta Ombudsman and the Farmers Advocate as well as the Honorable Diana McQueen, our Provincial Justice Minister, to see if they would be willing to supply our county manager and council with “Mexican Hats.”
Ratepayers of our county be vigilant and help protect our democracy.
Concerned County Ratepayer, Leonard Arndt
