Skip to content

Canmore votes to equalize commercial, residential tax rates

Canmore council has set 2011 property tax rates and, in line with past decisions, voted to redistribute the tax burden between commercial and residential classes.

Canmore council has set 2011 property tax rates and, in line with past decisions, voted to redistribute the tax burden between commercial and residential classes.

Manager of finance Terry Holt made the recommendation with respect to the municipal property taxes in the community.

“Administration recommends following past practice, which includes redistribution of taxes levied from residential and non-residential,” Holt said. “Year over year, the percentage increase of the tax burden is split between these tax categories.”

The recommended distribution of taxes saw commercial properties go from a 1.8 per cent decrease, or average savings of $62, in municipal taxes to a 3.3 per cent increase, or an average increase of $115.

Residential classes saw an average increase of 6.7 per cent ($82 change) to an average increase of 3.4 per cent (or $41) on the municipal tax side.

Councillor John Borrowman questioned why properties that make up approximately 20 per cent of the assessment are contributing over 30 per cent of the taxes.

Borrowman questioned the philosophy of having one class of properties, commercial, contribute more of the revenues when they represent a smaller proportion of the assessment.

While Canmore has a target of a 60:40 split of its assessment base (residential:non-residential), it does not have a target for taxation.

Mayor Ron Casey said the situation is the result of redistributing the tax burden over time.

“What you are looking at is the cumulative effect of doing that,” he said.

He pointed out there were years where the assessment increase for residential was high and commercial remained flat and it would have resulted in significant tax increases for one group over another.

“Rather than seeing part of the community get hit exceptionally hard, out of fairness for everyone, whether commercial or residential, we would see roughly an equal split,” said the mayor. “It gradually creates more of a split, but through the years, on a long-term basis, it has resulted in equal amounts of (percentage) increases to each category.”

However, the Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association in a letter to council this week, challenged redistribution of those funds.

Pointing to the fact commercial assessments have on average decreased seven per cent while residential has seen a modest increase of one per cent, executive director Ron Remple said one key reason for that is the local economy is still not strong.

“If we continue to layer on additional taxes to the non-residential sector, this can only slow the economic recovery in Canmore even further,” Remple said. “Higher annual taxes makes operating a business in Canmore more difficult each year and will likely discourage further business investment in our community.”

BOWDA reiterated its position on the tax split by requesting that, given the tough economic times businesses are facing, council start to rebalance this inequity by reducing the proportion of the total tax burden that is paid by non-residential property owners.

Councillor Jim Ridley made a motion, later withdrawn, to capitalize on decreased provincial property tax rates.

The total education requisition by the province for Canmore is $15.7 million, down 1.1 per cent or $140,000 from last year.

Ridley proposed to see those funds contributed to the Town’s tax stabilization reserve and ease the burden of having to fund a stand alone fire department beginning next spring.

To make the motion work, the mill rate bylaws would have been postponed and Chief Administrative Officer Don Kochan said that would upset the schedule for mailing out tax notices.


Rocky Mountain Outlook

About the Author: Rocky Mountain Outlook

The Rocky Mountain Outlook is Bow Valley's No. 1 source for local news and events.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks