City corrects inaccurate Postmedia article about property taxes

The city is disputing a property tax rate story citing Grande Prairie as having the highest in the province.
 
Postmedia based its findings for Grande Prairie on 2016 data that was inaccurate according to city officials and they say the Edmonton Journal/Global News should have used the 2018 tax rate which is 1.28 per cent. The article had the 2016 tax rate at 1.48 per cent but the city says that year’s rate was actually 1.1869%. 

 In a statement on its website, the city goes onto say it also corrected the tax rates reported for Camrose and Leduc adding the updated calculations put a number of cities ahead of Grande Prairie when it comes to taxes including Beaumont, Leduc and Edmonton.

“A municipality’s tax rate is only half of the equation when it comes to property taxes. The other half is the assessment. The same home in each municipality will be worth a different amount depending on the market in each municipality. To get an accurate picture of what a typical home in each municipality pays, the report should have multiplied the municipality’s tax rate against the typical home price. To compare Canmore’s tax rate to Grande Prairie’s is not fair as the typical home in Canmore is worth over double that of a home in Grande Prairie.”