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By Shaun Penner
Tax Payment Deadline

City Council to consider pushing back 2021 property tax payment deadline

Feb 17, 2021 | 1:01 PM

Grande Prairie City Council will be mulling the possibility of extending the 2021 property tax deadline to help those individuals and businesses impacted by the ongoing economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A motion was passed unanimously by the Corporate Services Committee Tuesday to recommend council defer the property tax deadline to Aug. 31, 2021, while also waiving late payment penalties for July and sign-up fees for the Tax Installment Payment Plan.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says though council places a high priority on helping those individuals and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions, they need to ensure they can make it work within the budget first.

“Any consideration for deferring a penalty is a serious consideration for council,” said Clayton. “This is something we visited last year, and we made a decision last year based on businesses suffering throughout our community.”

The 2020 tax deadline was moved to Aug. 31 last year as well, while they also waived the six per cent quarterly late payment fees in May and July, which did impact the city’s budget to the tune of about $950,000.

Though council was able to make that work within its budget, a decision from council on whether or not to go ahead with another deferral for 2021 will come after council gets an opportunity to look over the financial statements for the fourth quarter of 2020, which are expected to be completed in late spring.

Committee members were told by Corporate Services Director Shane Bourke at Tuesday’s meeting that waiving the July late payment penalty would have approximately a $600,000 impact on the budget.

“I am comfortable in saying that looking at a plan that waived future penalties… is within something council and the city could afford,” said Bourke Tuesday.

Clayton says regardless of that cost, it is important to find ways to work with those in the community that are still facing the economic toll the year-long pandemic has caused.

“This is again an opportunity for businesses to have a little bit of a cushion, so that they can not feel as much pressure, and hopefully this supports them in a way that we can during this time.”

Back in November, council approved a 0.15 per cent property tax increase for 2021.

READ MORE: 2021 municipal budget to create 0.15 per cent property tax increase

by Shaun Penner