BANFF – Banff residents will get a break in education taxes this year.
In the 2023 Alberta provincial budget, released on Feb. 28, the education property tax requisition was frozen at $2.5 billion, the same amount as 2022, but is set to increase to $2.6 billion next year and to $2.7 billion the following year.
For the Town of Banff, officials say that means an eight per cent drop in the overall school tax requisition from $9.58 million in 2022 to $8.79 million in 2023. Non-residential is down 16 per cent from $4.5 million to $3.79 million, while residential dropped one per cent from $5,073,647 to $4,999,483.
“The education tax is a good news story for us,” said Mayor Corrie DiManno.
“In the province’s equalized assessment for all municipalities for the 2023 tax year, Banff still shows the impact of the pandemic so this means Banff will see a drop in our total education tax requisition.”
Prior to the release of Budget 2023, Alberta Municipalities met with provincial ministers and advocated for the 2023 provincial education tax to be frozen at the 2022 amount. It was initially set to increase by 1.5 per cent in 2023-24.
“This request was based on understanding the affordability challenges that Albertans currently face as well as the fact that municipal councils consistently bear the blame for any increase in provincial education property taxes,” states a March 1 report by Alberta Municipalities on the budget.
While Alberta Municipalities applauds this year’s freeze on school tax budget, the budget indicates the Alberta government plans to return to linking future education tax increases to changes in Alberta’s population plus inflation.
The organization wants to see the freeze maintained in subsequent budgets.
“The budget forecast suggests that property owners could collectively face a four per cent increase in education property taxes in 2024 and an additional 3.8 per cent increase in 2025,” states the report.
Budget 2023 continues the three-year plan for the phase out of the MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) capital program before it is replaced by the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) in 2024-25.
Banff gets $1.4 million of the province’s $485 million for capital in 2023, which was the same as last year.
However, the MSI operating grant for municipalities has been doubled from $30 million to $60 million, which for Banff means a total of $218,568.
“We’re pleased to see that they are trying to address inflation by essentially doubling the Municipal Sustainability Initiative operating grant, but that has always been low for us,” said DiManno.
While Travel Alberta is seeing $71.9 million of stable funding, DiManno said there was nothing in the budget specifically for Banff, Canmore and Jasper’s quest for recognition as tourism-based communities.
“We would have been really ecstatic to receive some funding for that, but we weren’t really expecting it in budget,” she said.
“We’ve pivoted to really focus on trying to get that recognition of being a tourism-based community and we’re still feeling hopeful that this is a conversation that’s continuing with our provincial counterparts and that it could be an outcome of the upcoming legislative sessions.”
While there was nothing specifically for Banff for housing, budget 2023-24 allocated $342.5 million for affordable housing. Of that, $34.3 million is dedicated to help grow the supply of affordable housing in priority areas through the Affordable Housing Partnership Program.
“We all know we’re in a housing crisis here," said DiManno.
“There’s lots of gratitude for Ti’nu and the incredible impact that has had on our community, but the reality is we still need their help and so we’re looking forward to learning more about the details of how that program could help us.”
On the transit front, there were no new commitments in Budget 2023, but DiManno spoke to the $5 million provincial grant to the City of Calgary for an engineering study of an LRT line connecting Calgary airport to the city’s downtown.
“That would be a critical link if passenger rail was to return to the Bow Valley in the future,” she said.
DiManno said the Town welcomed new funding opportunities that should benefit Banff residents, such as recruiting and attracting nurses and doctors, attention paid to Emergency Medical Services, commitments to mental health initiatives, and childcare space and affordability grants to childcare operators.
“We’re really pleased to see funding toward the type of initiatives we know are top priorities for our residents” she said.
