Skip to content

New fees approved for Red Deerians who want lengthy tax assessment explanations

The public is encouraged to check online information first
13847831_web1_IMG_4406
(Advocate file photo).

It will now cost Red Deerians to get long and detailed explanations about their tax assessments from City of Red Deer staff.

This week, city council voted in favour of new fees of $40 (for residential information) to $125 (for non-residential information) for legislated property assessment information requests. Council heard this change was required because of a steep rise in requests for tax assessment information.

Corporate Services director Lisa Perkins told city council that local assessment information requests for non-residential (commercial) properties jumped from 32 to 214 from 2016 to 2017 — resulting in 800 hours of staff effort.

Perkins believes it’s time for Red Deer to impose a fee for looking up detailed information that takes a lot of time. The charges were implemented on a cost-recovery basis.

Because of changes in the Municipal Government Act, many more people are now seeking information from the city about how their commercial tax assessment was prepared. Perkins said Section 300 of the MGA allows an assessed person access to a summary of the assessment of any property in the municipality.

Council received a letter of concern from a city resident, who suggested many business owners have good reason to seek explanations about why their property taxes have risen out of all proportion to rents.

He gave an example of one commercial property that actually saw a rent reduction of $300 a month since 2003, but a property tax increase of about $3,000 over the same period. On another property, the rent increased nominally over the last 17 years, but the property assessment more than doubled.

“My examples are experienced by all commercial property owners in the city. The payment of taxes is not a service and property owners are reasonable in requesting the city to justify their tax assessments,” said letter writer Allan Collins.

However, city councillors were satisfied that some tax assessment information is readily available to the public on the city’s website, and that staff would not charge for short in-person inquiries. Perkins hopes the fee will spur more people to first check out the free tax assessment information and comparison maps available online.

She noted many other municipalities have already implemented this kind of cost-recovery fee, including Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie, Airdrie, St. Albert, Medicine Hat and the County of Red Deer.



Send your news tips

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter