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County of Grande Prairie

County of Grande Prairie reeve says council will try to reduce deficit, keep any muncipal tax increase low

Dec 17, 2024 | 6:16 PM

The reeve of the County of Grande Prairie says when it comes to a budget deficit, “there are still a lot of things at play between now and final budget.”

Bob Marshall says that includes final assessments, which he thinks will help reduce the current $3.96 million deficit, grants, the education portion of the property tax bill and projects that were deferred to final budget talks in April.

He says council will do its best to keep any tax increase to a minimum.

“In the budget deliberations, they were suggesting around a 2.5 to three (per cent tax increase) but, again, that’ll depend on what the final numbers are at budget.”

“There will be probably a tax increase. We’re going to try to keep it as low as possible. I’m hoping lower than three per cent.”

Marshall says every one per cent increase in taxes is would cost another $20 per year for the average home.

“We can’t control what happens on the provincial, on the school tax side. That’s a provincial regulation that we have no control over. We just have to collect those dollars and then transfer it on to the province.”

Marshall says tax increases have been zero the last four years, other than assessed value, as council wanted to protect ratepayers when the pandemic hit. Reserve funds were used instead. Marshall says the amount in reserve funds has gone from $100 million to around $50 million. He adds those reserves are being assessed to “make sure we are not saving money on the backs of our ratepayers,” by putting away more money than is needed.

The county is also owed $1.4 million in unpaid taxes from oil and gas companies.

Marshall says the only option the county has is road use agreements where companies that are still operational can be kept off the roads until the taxes are paid.

“If they’re not operational and we have those on our books and until there’s something we can do with them or until they get more solvent or settle their property (taxes), there’s not a lot we can do around that. We just have to carry those unpaid balances forward.”

Marshall says most companies do pay, but there are a few that don’t.