Alberta Municipalities has added its voice to the chorus calling on the province to get tough on oil company tax dodgers.
A recent Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) survey of its members revealed just under $254 million in unpaid property taxes are owed by nearly 200 energy industry companies. Especially infuriating to rural municipalities is that 100 of the delinquent companies are operating.
Detailed company data collected as part of the RMA survey of its 69 municipal districts and counties showed the 10 worst offending companies owed $67.3 million to 18 different municipalities. The biggest culprit owed $27 million to 19 municipalities.
Since 2015, Alberta municipalities have written off more than $200 million in taxes they gave up hope of ever collecting.
Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis), which represents about 260 urban municipalities of all sizes, said it is concerned about the long-standing issue of unpaid oil and gas taxes, which it says shifts the financial burden to the tax bills of property and business owners.
"When these taxes go unpaid, municipalities do not have the funds needed to maintain their local infrastructure and pay for services that residents and other businesses expect their local government to deliver," says AbMunis in a statement.
AbMunis is throwing its support behind the RMA and its ongoing effort to convince the provincial government to crack down on tax delinquents.
Oil and gas companies have used regulatory and legislative "loopholes" to avoid paying their taxes without facing the stiff penalties other tax dodgers face, says the association.
“Oil and gas companies play a vital role in Alberta’s economy, but that doesn’t entitle them to be excluded from paying whatever municipal property taxes they owe,” said ABmunis president Tyler Gandam.
“We ask the provincial government to work with municipal associations, industry and other relevant stakeholders to close legislative and enforcement gaps and ensure delinquent companies are held accountable and ultimately pay their taxes.”
AbMunis seconds the RMA's call for a working group to create a Property Tax Accountability Strategy to address the tax issue.
The RMA says the working group would focus on closing legislative and enforcement gaps and produce a joint report with specific actions and strategies to make companies pay up.
