By Justin Dionne

Former City Councillor talks property taxes at speaking event

Mar 14, 2019 | 6:08 PM

Former City Councillor Rory Tarant made an appearance at a speaking event during lunchtime Thursday.

Tarant was at Realty Glimpse to talk in-depth about property taxes in Grande Prairie. During the hour-long event, Tarant was touching on topics such as possible long-term solutions to reducing property tax.

He explains one of the most notable reasons why property taxes in the city are high is because Grande Prairie relies more on residential taxes.

“The big reason comes down to the different property taxes that are collected, particularly between the residential, commercial, and a couple other industrial taxes,” says Tarant. “Because Grande Prairie is more reliant on residential taxes, we don’t have as great of a tax base in some of the other industrial taxes. That generates more of a burden on the residential taxpayer.”

Tarant notes that one long-term plan that could reduce the cost of property tax and increase the industrial tax base would be looking into more equitable sharing of the current industrial tax base that the County of Grande Prairie and the MD of Greenview have.

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“There’s significant resources there that a lot of people feel should be shared within the city. So, that’s part of it.”

While limiting spending on residential properties can help with the cost of property taxes, Tarant says it’s not a long-term solution. He adds the Province’s Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework is requiring the City and the County to work together to identify ways to deliver services more efficiently, which includes exploring revenue sharing opportunities.

Event organizer and Realtor Mark Street says as property taxes are a popular topic, it’s likely that it’ll return as the subject of a future event.