WESTLOCK — NDP leader Rachel Notley says she’s hopeful the UCP government will backtrack on its plan to implement changes to the assessment model but doesn’t think it’s likely.
“I suspect that what we may see is that they will pick one of the least awful of the awful options,” Notley said Oct. 6.
She and Joe Ceci, NDP critic for Municipal Affairs, are calling for the government to scrap the proposals altogether and start with a real consultation process that involves municipalities. Over the summer, the government did include their representatives, Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and Rural Municipalities of Alberta, into the process but embargoed the information until the process was over in late July.
“Quite frankly, simply handing money over to large out-of-province companies with the hope and the crossed fingers that that money will somehow trickle down to Albertans in the form of ‘some jobs maybe being protected, but we don’t know for sure,’ is outdated thinking. We can’t keep recycling the same failed economic recipe and expecting different results,” Notley said.
“Instead of having literal backroom deals that leave Alberta families further behind, Jason Kenney should be focused on finding ways to support our communities during these tough times in a much more transparent, open way.”
Municipal Affairs minister Tracy Allard promised rural municipalities that she’ll hold off on implementation of any of the four proposed changes — all of which would mean a reduction in the assessed values of oil and gas properties, thus the taxes they pay — until she reviews the issue. Municipal leaders are expecting an answer by mid-October.
Both Ceci and Notley, while asking the government to stop any implementation, are skeptical it’ll happen.
“I think they’re going to follow through with something bad for municipalities. Hopefully, they stick with what my leader is talking about and actually consult, listen and see the interpretation of the information the same way as the municipalities,” Ceci said.
“That was one of the problems that was expressed to me (at the AUMA conference), the municipal affairs minister was interpreting the data completely different than long-term municipal leaders in this province who have years and years of experience. So I’m hopeful that the new minister listens, steps back and reloads with municipalities, but my fear is that they’re going to take a less bad approach of the many scenarios they’ve put forward and say ‘You’ve won, municipalities.’”
For now, as municipalities enter budget processes, nothing is certain until Allard makes the announcement. Westlock County interim CAO Rick McDonald said in September that they’ll be running scenarios to see how any of the proposed changes would impact service levels and tax rates.
He was adamant that there will be tax hikes. The county estimated anywhere between 24.1-31.3 per cent increase in residential taxes, a 21.4-27.8 per cent full-time staff reduction and cuts in services if any of the models go ahead.
In a letter to Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken, deputy reeve Brian Coleman said the result of these changes is “simply transferring taxes from oil and gas industry to other businesses and residents.”
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
For more on this story, see the Oct. 13 print edition of Town & Country This Week.
