Red Deer County is proposing a bylaw that would see mobile park owners collect property taxes from their residents to make collecting tax arrears more efficient for the county.
But mobile park residents say they are being treated like second-class citizens, and it will end up costing them money.
Mike Rondeau, vice-president of Waskasoo Estates Tenants Association, said so far 180 out of 229 residents from his mobile park have sent the county letters protesting the proposed bylaw.
“It makes absolutely zero sense. They are basically saying that it’s too expensive to collect taxes that are in arrears so they want the park owners to do that,” Rondeau said.
“They are shifting all the responsibility to the park owners, and park owners have no more power to collect tax in arrears than the county does. In fact, they probably have less power.”
He said mobile home park owners will be on the hook when taxes are not paid, not to mention the added responsibility and cost to owners to collect taxes, and those costs will be passed onto park residents.
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In 2009, Red Deer County passed a similar bylaw, but it only applied to Les’ Trailer Park.
Another bylaw was proposed in 2019 only for Kountry Meadows and Melody Meadows because administration was having trouble receiving timely property tax information from those park owners. That bylaw was deferred for a year, then dropped, after park owners ensured council that they would be more attentive.
Now county administration is recommending the county’s remaining five mobile parks — Kountry Meadows, Melody Meadows, South Park, Spruce View and Waskasoo Estates — be included in the proposed bylaw to simplify and streamline the assessment and collection of property taxes.
Council passed first reading of the bylaw on July 19, with second reading and discussion scheduled for Oct. 18.
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Red Deer County trying to fix problem collecting taxes from mobile homes
Rondeau said a provincial law gives municipalities the option to treat manufactured homes differently than other residential property, but it doesn’t mean it should.
“The provincial and county governments are endeavouring to treat us as second-class citizens.”
He said they are treating mobile home owners like transients who will move their homes in the middle of the night to avoid taxes.
“If you ever drive around our park you’ll notice we have garages, and decks, and additions all attached to mobile homes. There are no wheels underneath. There’s no hitches. To move a mobile home off this park you would need a semi-trailer,” he said about Waskasoo Estates which is home to 60 per cent of the homes in mobile home parks in the county.
“You could probably move a small house easier and quicker than you could move one of the mobiles off this park.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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