BOYLE – The Village of Boyle is hoping to attract investors and developers with a new bylaw which creates tax exemptions for new/revitalized buildings, new businesses, and new residential housing developments.
Councillors unanimously passed the bylaw during their July 3 meeting, which would exempt eligible property owners from between 25 and 100 per cent of their taxes, depending on the new or increased assessment value, and how long ago the renovations occurred.
“It’s meant to encourage new building development or business building revitalization,” said CAO Warren Griffin. “It is current to new legislation with the passage of Bill 20.”
Property owners who have either built a new property assessed between $250,000 and $1 million, or who have done renovations to increase their existing assessment by the same amount can apply for a three-year exemption.
In the first year, 75 per cent of the taxes would be exempt, followed by 50 per cent in the second year, and 25 per cent in the third. If the assessment increase is more than $1 million, the owner would be entirely exempt from tax in the first year, followed by 75 per cent exempt in the second and 50 per cent in the third.
“I just want to thank council for being so forward-thinking and having good discussions surrounding attracting residents into the Village of Boyle,” said Mayor Colin Derko. “We should all be proud of that discussion that we had.”
Taxes weren’t the only legislative change councillors had to deal with following the June 5 Municipal Accountability Report. Griffin and his team found non-compliant sections of the procedural bylaw, as well as the council code of conduct bylaw which he also addressed.
“The biggest change was the ability to remove a councillor from council meetings, and the Municipal Government Act (MGA) doesn’t allow for that,” said Griffin, joking with councillors that they would need to be on their best behaviour.
“We can’t kick you out anymore.”
Council also repealed its off-site levy bylaw, which had also fallen into non-compliance. According to the provincial government, any off-site levy bylaw requires an engineering report to support and defend its fees, which the village didn’t have.
Off-site levies are one-time fees a municipality can charge a developer to bring services, including water or sewer lines, to a property. If a lot has been charged a service levy in the past, it can’t be charged for the same service again.
“The fees are charged so we can bring in utilities and infrastructure into undeveloped plots,” said Griffin. “In order to justify that cost, you need the engineering cost so you can defend it in court if need be.”
Griffin asked for the bylaw to be repealed, citing the outdated fee amount – the now-repealed 1988 bylaw only charged $1,000 – and lack of capacity for a quick turnaround as reasons why.
“We’re not losing a lot of money by repealing this now,” he said. “The Town of Westlock, their offsite levy for an undeveloped lot is around $74,000 and some change per hectare.
“That’s the importance of having a proper off-site levy so that we aren’t saddling the taxpayer with unnecessary costs.”
Griffin said the costs for the report will be included in the 2025 draft budget for the village.
