BONNYVILLE – Voted on in the late evening on May 9, the MD of Bonnyville council approved the 2023 Tax Rate Bylaw that will see a 3.82 per cent overall municipal tax increase.
MD ratepayers will be subject to a 2.82 per cent general tax levy increase and a new one per cent municipal environmental tax levy.
The mill rates were readjusted at the council meeting as a result of a decision made earlier in the day that had a $490,000 impact on the municipality’s 2023 operating budget.
At the regular meeting, council approved a renovation loan bylaw that will see the municipality provide a $4.5 million loan amortized over 20 years at five per cent interest to the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA).
The funds are to be used to renovate the Kopala building that will serve as the BRFA headquarters and house Station 5 Bonnyville, EMS and the 911 dispatch centre.
Speaking to how council may choose to balance the budget following the approved loan, CAO Al Hoggan said, “It either is done through an increase in revenue through a [higher] tax rate or is done through a decrease in service.”
To balance the 2023 budget with the new expenditure, council decided to table the tax rate bylaw to later in the meeting to provide administration an opportunity to calculate the exact amount needed to cover the shortfall.
Over the 20 years of the loan, the BRFA’s partnering municipalities, the MD and the Town of Bonnyville, will be contributing to the repayment of the loan.
The Town will fund approximately 36 per cent of the loan, roughly $1.6 million, as well as fund the five per cent interest amounting to $961,400.
The remaining 64 per cent of the expenditure covered by the MD will be about $229,000, plus an estimated lost investment revenue of $261,000 per year. The total impact of the BRFA loan on the MD’s 2023 budget is about $490,000.
Administration returned with adjusted taxation rates to cover the budget deficit, resulting in a slight bump in some mill rates ranging from 0.023 to 0.065, for an additional 0.8 per cent tax increase for MD ratepayers.
The residential mill rate is set at 2.86875, farmland remains at 5.000, non-residential (vacant) is set at 14.34375, non-residential (small business) is set at 11.47500 and non-residential (other) is 14.23100. The mill rate for machinery and equipment property is 14.34375.
While this year’s tax rates are slightly lower than the previous year, this does not mean that ratepayers can expect to see lower property taxes, explained the MD’s manager of Assessment Services Calvin Bespalko. Last year's residential tax rate was 2.9.
Using the residential tax class as an example, Bespalko noted that the residential assessment class has increased because market values in the municipality have increased by roughly eight to 12 per cent from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022.
“The market has gone up, and therefore the tax rate appears to have gone down, but the overall taxes will see a little bit of an increase,” Bespalko told council.
Meanwhile, mill rates for properties in Ward 6 North (ID 349) have been set at 10.04063 for non-residential (vacant), non-residential (other) and properties with machinery and equipment.
Properties in Ward 6 North are taxed at a rate of 70 per cent of the MD’s regular non-residential tax rate. This is the result of an Order of Council that was passed when the municipality acquired ID 349 and will be in place for a period of 25 years.
Total taxes levied
The MD will collect a total of $84.7 million through taxes for the general municipal operations while $17.5 million will be directed to provincial requisitions for schools and seniors housing.
The total school requisitions for the municipality, which includes both the Alberta School Foundation Fund and Lakeland Catholic Separate School Division, is $16.2 million.
The Lakeland Lodge and Housing Foundation will see a $573,562 injection from the MD ratepayers for seniors housing, while the seniors requisition from Ward 6 North will be funneled into the Greater North Foundation to the tune of $310,051.
Tax deadline
Council also passed the Unpaid Tax Penalty Bylaw at the May 9 regular meeting, setting the date for when taxes must be paid without a penalty being applied.
This year’s MD property taxes must be paid by Sept. 16, or penalties will apply. During the pandemic, the date had been set for Oct. 16 to comply with COVID-19 relief efforts, according to administration.
