Council supports plans to endorse Bill 21
Council voted Wednesday night to endorse a 10-year transition plan to bring the regions tax ratio down to 5:1.
PHOTO. Jubilee Centre. Sarah Anderson. REPORTER.
Council met Wednesday, Sept. 13 to further discuss how the municipality plans to deal with Bill 21.
Bill 21, Modernizing the Municipal Government Act, would see regions throughout the province have a mandatory non residential to residential tax ratio of 5:1.
Currently the RMWB’s ratio is 17.9:1.
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Council will submit a joint letter with industry supporting a 10-year transition period.
Plans to achieve the 5:1 ratio by 2028 include:
- Reducing property tax revenue required for municipal operations and capital infrastructure (budget reductions)
- Increasing tax rates of all tax classes except rural non-residential
- Decreasing rural non-residential tax rate while keeping all other tax rates static
- Both budget reductions and tax rate increases
While there was talk about “grandfathering” municipalities that exceed the 5:1 ratio already, the NDP government has introduced Bill 8, an Act to Strengthen Municipal Government.
Bill 8 was the clear that no municipalities would be grandfathered into the new ratio.