Opinion: Stop downloading expenses onto Alberta’s municipalities

With all the rhetoric related to unity, tariffs and other multiple black swans that have occurred in society today, I want to assert the right of municipalities to exist, unfettered by the actions of the provincial government.

I will take, for example, the ultimate downloading that has ever existed in the history of municipalities in Alberta (aside from dumping bridges on us). The 2024-25 police-funding model numbers have been updated to Ponoka County to the tune of $776,302. Ponoka County had a population of 10,428 in 2024 and that expense is $74.44 per person. Importantly, there has been no change in service when the police-funding model was created but, that is another long opinion piece that would eat up my word count.

Article content

But wait, we are not talking per-capita here; we are instead talking about assessment. So, this is where it gets stupid. Ponoka County has a tax bill of $21 million based upon 3.7 billion dollars of assessment. Now, if you have ever been to Ponoka County, you would know that farmland is what we are, with beautiful rolling hills, fat cattle, wheatfields, and canola. Our total municipal tax for assessed farmland is $639,150 and residential is $4,112,522. Just the policing download alone is 112 per cent of farmland or 16 per cent of the residential tax. I want that to sink in.

Article content

Even more importantly, linear assessment — tax on property with distribution networks such as pipelines (45 per cent of total tax in Ponoka County) — is also impacted by this policing download and disproportionate to the impact of crime on pipelines. I have done a search and there has been very little theft of a working pipeline in Alberta.

Pipelines pay school tax — which makes total sense as they had pioneer pipelines paying education tax back in the day. Remember those little, old schoolhouses full of little eager-to-learn pipelines? The facts are that pipelines represent $3.5 million of property education tax school, or 36 per cent of the total $9.7 million that we collect on behalf of the province for education. Another example of PTAR.

Article content

Article content

What is PTAR? Property Tax Assessment Regressivity.

Property tax is a regressive tax as it is based upon the value of the property and not on the taxpayer’s income. Property tax is not properly designed for downloading of other expenses and barely can address road and bridge needs in a municipality. Even more significant is that the provincial government knows this and still downloads the costs, cuts transfers, and acts without a duty of care related to oil and gas property tax payments.

When you get activity-related taxation, that better addresses impact on infrastructure, they get withdrawn (like the well drilling equipment tax that we used to fix roads damaged from intense drilling activity).

Now, I am solution focused, so here is the solution. Change our assessment program, stop the download and keep municipalities whole. That is how you keep bridges and roads in good repair in rural Alberta to contribute to GDP and get goods to market.

You want grow Alberta’s economy with rural Alberta? Stay out of our way. In my 18 years of elected office, I have never been treated as a child of the provincial government, until now. I have never seen as large of a provincial download, until now.

Article content

Enjoy your personal tax cut, Albertans; check out your municipal property taxes to find out where the money came from. To quote the minster to Alberta’s municipalities: “They’re not required to be happy with the decisions that we make.”

Oh, wait. Yes, they do. Stop the download.

Paul McLauchlin is the reeve of Ponoka County, a fifth-term councillor, and former president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. He farms north of Rimbey and runs an environmental consulting company.

Letters welcome

Article content