Town ratepayers should expect an increase on their property tax bills after the Westlock Foundation issued its requisition for 2013.
At the March 25 town council meeting, councillors were presented with the foundation’s requisition request, which totalled $1,187,005.
As the town is responsible for 30.12 per cent of the funding the foundation receives, the town, through its ratepayers, has to pay $357,573.05.
Councillors were not too happy when they heard the news.
“It’s very disappointing, and as a municipality we have no choice,” said mayor Bruce Lennon. “Under the regulations, we have to pay the requisition.”
Lennon said the town had budgeted for an increase in the requisition above what it had been last year, but the anticipated increase was a lot less than what they were presented with.
“We assumed it was going to be higher, but we didn’t dream it was going to be this high,” said the mayor.Last year, he said the town’s share of the requisition had been close to $139,000. This year’s requisition of nearly $358,000 is more than two-and-a-half times as much as last year.
“It’s really a big hit for our community,” Lennon said. “One of the problems we have is we’re pretty well finished our budget process and here we are now having to requisition an additional $200,000 from our ratepayers.”
Westlock Foundation chair and town Coun. David Truckey was not in attendance at the March 25 meeting, but was reached to comment on the requisition.
He explained the requisition is used for capital purposes, as the foundation’s operations are self-sufficient.
In this case, the sharp increase in the requisition is to expedite the repayment of loans taken out to pay for the Pembina Lodge expansion, including a three-year, $1 million loan, Truckey said.
Previously, the foundation had applied $500,000 to that loan, and will be using this year’s requisition to further pay down that debt, he said.
“In essence we’ve shortened our loan payments up from what they were going to be,” Truckey said, explaining the goal is to pay off the $1 million in two years instead of three.
For how much longer the requisitions will need to be increased to reduce the foundation’s debt is unknown, he said, but it’s not expected to be very long until the requisitions return to the amounts they had been prior to this year.
“I am optimistic that it will stabilize downward in the next couple years, but we knew coming into this year that we were going to have higher than normal requisitions,” Truckey said.
Regardless of how much the requisition is, Truckey said it is a financial burden for those who have to pay it.
“Obviously nobody want to have those big requisitions,” he said. “It’s difficult for our member municipalities. It all is a lot of money to our ratepayers in the member municipalities.”
Lennon said he also acknowledges the reality of the situation, but he’s not happy about it.
“It’s really a downloading by the (provincial) government,” he said. “They underfund these things.”
He added there is obviously a need for services like those the Westlock Foundation provides, especially in a community like Westlock where there are a lot of seniors, many of whom come from other municipalities.
“It’s really a provincial responsibility and we end up footing the bill on some of these things,” Lennon continued. “To get it done, somebody has to pay for it and I guess it’s our local ratepayers.”
There are four municipalities that contribute the funds to keep the Westlock Foundation running — the town, Westlock County, the Village of Clyde and the M.D. of Lesser Slave River.
The county is responsible for 54.86 per cent of the requisition, totalling $651,199.37. Clyde is on the hook for 1.71 per cent, or $20,315.75. Lesser Slave River’s share is 13.3 per cent, representing $157,916.24.
Town residents will see the requisition show up on their tax bills when they are sent out in the coming weeks.
