Calgary councillors voted Tuesday morning to tally up a bill for costs related to the city’s work to administer and collect the province’s portion of property taxes and send an invoice to the Alberta government.
Council added the amendment as it passed this year’s property tax bylaw, which shows a combined increase of 8.9 per cent for residential properties in Calgary.
The total comes after the provincial government upped its requisition amount by 15.6 per cent on the residential side.
“This provincial government just handed you an additional cost of about $240 a year to the average homeowner, without even engaging with you, without even really telling you that they were going to start charging you more on your property taxes,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
“I find it interesting that we have taken a thoughtful approach and a very engaged approach, and we have a partner who just handed us a bill.”
For the average single-family home assessed at $697,000, the property tax this year will cost just over $29 more per month than last year—$11 of that due to the municipal rate increase and $18 due to the hike on the provincial side.
“I’ve been doing this for 14 years, and this is the most egregious situation I’ve ever come across. It’s absolutely laughable,” Coun. Peter Demong said during debate on Tuesday.
While several councillors admitted it’s unlikely the province will pay the city for collecting its portion of taxes, they noted it’s more of a symbolic gesture.
It’s estimated the labour and material costs for the city to collect the province’s portion of the taxes every year are about $10 million.
“I don’t know if it’s likely (the province will pay); however, it’s sending the message that instead of having 344 municipalities collecting taxes on behalf of the provincial government, it would be a lot better if there was one collector sending out notices to all of them,” said Coun. Andre Chabot.
Property tax bills will be sent out by the city in May, and payment is due by June 30.
Justin Brattinga, senior press secretary for the province’s Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance, provided CTV News with a statement on Tuesday:
“City Council is making an attempt to save their re-election campaigns by blaming their rampant overspending on the province. Municipalities have collected education property taxes for over 30 years and this continues to be the case. This is an attempt to distract Calgarians from the fact that they are raising their property taxes for the fourth year in a row,” the statement said.
“If the city can’t manage collecting the taxes, we’re sure someone will step forward in October’s election that can.
“(Education) Minister (Demetrios) Nicolaides announced 18 new schools for Calgary and area as part of Budget 2025, if passed. The intent of education property tax is to fund one-third of education costs, which has not been happening for several years, and the additional property tax being requisitioned from Calgary will not come close to funding the cost of these schools.”
