CANMORE – Canmore taxpayers will have an idea of what they’ll be on the hook for municipal taxes in 2022.
Town council passed a $61.5 million operating budget and a capital budget of $26.3 million. The operating budget serves as a 5.1 per cent increase, with $33.4 million coming from non-taxation sources and the remaining $28.1 million from municipal taxes.
“I think we can see from what other municipalities are experiencing, and we certainly are not immune to it, that this is a tough budget year,” Mayor Sean Krausert said. “There’s been a lot of pressures on the budget out of our control. I think administration and the finance committee have done a good job of keeping it within a moderate increase compared to what others are experiencing.
“What we’re also recognizing is when you go the route of zero per cent increase, despite the fact there are inflationary forces at work, eventually you have to pay that cost. COVID has been hard right across the board, and I certainly applaud the efforts of past councils in trying to alleviate pain being experienced on a variety of fronts, but it delays the increase and it compounds.”
While municipal taxes are set, the education tax requisition – which is decided by the province – will come after the province passes its budget early in 2022. For every dollar collected, $0.53 is for municipal use, but $0.44 goes to the province for education and $0.03 is to help with local seniors' housing.
For taxpayers, it means for every $100,000 of assessed property value, municipal rates will increase annually from $233 to $245. For a property assessed at $700,000, municipal taxes will go from $1,631 in 2021 to $1,714 next year.
A property assessed at $1 million would see municipal taxes go from $2,330 in 2021 to $2,449 in 2022. Non-residential properties will see an increase from $760 to $799 for every $100,000 of assessed property.
With nearby Cochrane having passed a 10 per cent increase to its budget Monday (Dec. 13), Coun. Joanna McCallum noted municipalities are struggling in the recovery from COVID-19, particularly those who brought forward no increases in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
“We’ve never seen anything like it and municipalities were mostly left to manage the human side of it all on a face-to-face basis. … I’m proud of the recovery we’re seeing in this budget, in particular addressing things that were put on pause because of COVID in terms of housing, planning for the downtown,” she said.
The finance committee recommended council approve the budget increase of 5.1 per cent following deliberations in November that led to increases in areas of service.
Among the increases are a new policy planner position, tied to launching two municipal planning matters, the return of the Main Street pedestrian zone and increased Roam transit service.
Paid parking revenues will be used to help increase weekday Roam transit to 35-minute runs, which will cost $138,000 in 2022. The revenues will also be used to increase Sunday service at an expense of $50,000.
A policy planner position will be funded for $132,000, but the position will focus on the Palliser area structure plan (ASP) and the downtown area redevelopment plan (ARP). The Palliser ASP is budgeted for $100,000 and begins the work of potentially adding affordable housing to the Town’s inventory. The downtown ARP will look to redo a much needed plan for the core of the Town for a budgeted expense of $160,000.
The Main Street pedestrian capital project will have $50,000 from the economic development reserve for the upcoming year.
Coun. Tanya Foubert said those increases identify community needs not only in 2022, but in coming years.
“Our community and the operations of our municipality isn’t a Ronco rotisserie. You don’t just set it and forget it and it goes up by a pre-set. There are things we deal with that we didn’t even know we’d have to deal with even a month ago,” Foubert said. “We have to create the conditions for success for administration to deliver what it is in the community.”
One of the biggest tax jumps is out of the hands of council and staff, with Canmore’s population likely hitting more than 15,000 people in the last census. The change means the Town will now pay 90 per cent of RCMP costs compared to the previous 70 per cent.
The new six-year contract between the RCMP and the federal government will also add to the budget. It’s estimated an extra $615,000 will be needed in 2022, counting for about 2.2 per cent of the tax increase.
The fire rescue master plan also highlighted a higher population and visitation required a shift to more full-time firefighters. The phased plan will see four full-time firefighters added in 2023, but the cost in 2022 will be $92,000 or 0.3 per cent of the tax increase.
The two increases account for about half of the 5.1 per cent tax increase.
The tax increase will be 6.6 per cent, but 1.5 per cent is coming from growth leaving the 5.1 per cent for taxpayers. The tax stabilization reserve was also tapped to help cover increasing RCMP and fire costs and to fund the Safe Park program in 2022.
Every $260,000 added or removed to the operating budget represents a one per cent tax change.
According to Town records, there are 11,975 taxable parcels of land at a combined taxable assessment of $8.1 billion. Residential properties comprise 9.745 and commercial and industrial properties are 2,230 of the parcels.
The assessment split is 85 per cent residential and 15 per cent non-residential, but the tax split is 65 per cent residential and 35 per cent non-residential.
Because of the split, it means the common misconception of more businesses mean more tax revenue is wrong since it spreads out the taxes among more businesses.
Municipalities will also have to adjust to the province’s switch from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) to the Local Government Fiscal Framework. The change will have a 25 per cent reduction in funding, likely leading to questions on how to fund capital projects in coming years.
Chelsey Richardson, the Town of Canmore's manager of finance, also highlighted a recent change in interest rates offered by the province through the Alberta Capital Finance Authority.
In the past, the province would take municipal projects that needed borrowing and receive below market rates. Since hundreds of millions in borrowing would be brought for loans at the same time, it would result in a slight discount in the rates for municipal taxpayers.
However, the government announcement will see municipalities have an increase of about 0.5 to 0.75 per cent when borrowing through the province. Though not impacting this year, in future years it could mean hundreds of thousands extra in budgeting for capital projects.
Richardson said funds for the new fire hall are being borrowed through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities green municipal fund, but staff will have to look at the impact for 2023 and 2024.
The new fire station will cost $14.5 million, with $7 million coming from a debenture, $600,000 from the general capital reserve, $1.05 million from grants and $6 million from MSI.
The water upgrade for Old Canmore Road was meant to be completed in 2021, but the budget was deemed insufficient and project is carrying over for 2022. It was originally budgeted at $500,000, but will be $1.025 million this coming year. The water utility reserve will contribute $758,500 and a debenture will cover the remaining $266,500.
The utility rate for average residential accounts will increase 1.7 per cent or $10.67 during the year based on 15 cubic metres of water consumption. The commercial rate will increase between 1.2 and 2 per cent for the average account.
A Town report noted residential water use increased above forecasts during the pandemic, going up by five per cent. All commercial accounts – except for one – increased between nine and 19 per cent.
“Water and waste is one of those primary and important functions municipalities provide for their communities,” Coun. McCallum said. “There’s a lot of communities in Canada that don’t have the quality of water or wastewater that we do and have a garbage collection system that speaks to our goals with wildlife. It’s amazing, we go to the tap, we turn it on and this beautiful mountain juice comes out that’s clean.”
The 2022 rates for recyclables and waste collection for residential waste are $18.82 per residence and $16.51 per residence for recyclables each month. Commercial recyclable collection is $24.10 per commercial unit each month.
Foubert said a municipal budget can be daunting, largely due to the significant numbers shown each year to provide community services, but it will aim to achieve local goals and help residents.
“When you actually drill down to the details, there’s so much being accomplished for our community and projects that support our community, meet our community values and go after our strategic priorities as council," she said.
Significant revenues in 2022 operating budget including utilities, sewer and wastewater
- $28.1 million in municipal taxes
- $24.4 million in sales and rentals
- $3.08 million in permits and fines
- $1.5 million in internal transfers
- $1.37 million in grants
Key expenses in 2022 operating budget
- $21.58 million in salaries, wages and benefits
- $16.56 million in contracted services
- $8.07 million in transfers to reserves
- $4.39 million in borrowing costs
- $4.04 million in supplies and energy
- $2.31 million in admin and general services
Residential municipal tax impact per $100,000 of assessed property
- In 2021: $233
- In 2022: $245
Residential municipal tax impact per $700,000 of assessed property
- In 2021: $1,631
- In 2022: $1,714
Residential municipal tax impact per $1 million of assessed property
- In 2021: $2,330
- In 2022: $2,449
Non-residential municipal tax impact per $100,000 of assessed property
- In 2021: $760
- In 2022: $799
Major projects in the 2022 capital budget
- Construction of the new fire station: $14,650,000
- Phase 1 of the Bow River west pathway: $1,500,000
- Old Canmore Road water upgrade: $1,025,000
- Street and drainage rehabilitation for 2022: $1,000,000
- RCMP facility enhancements: $800,000
- TSMVPL litigation: $750,000
- Expansion Lions Park tennis court: $750,000
- Expansion of recreation centre rooftop solar panel: $530,000
- Complete street improvements Railway Avenue design: $500,000
- Phase 4 of biological aeration filtration and headworks lifecycle at the wastewater treatment plant for 2022: $500,000
- Feasibility study for best location for passenger rail station: $100,000
Correction: The original article stated the operating and capital budgets passed first reading. The borrowing bylaw passed first reading, while the budgets were approved. The Outlook apologizes for the error.
