Outgoing Calgary city councillor Peter Demong blasted the province for a spike in the provincial portion of the Calgary property tax, saying that it’s laughable.

Now the City of Calgary wants a portion of that money back.

Demong made the comments as Calgary city councillors voted on the city’s property tax bylaws which show a combined 8.9 per cent increase for city taxpayers.

The City of Calgary’s residential property tax increase is pegged at 5.3 per cent, with non-residential at 1.3 per cent for a combined 3.4 per cent overall.  The province is increase property tax requisition from Calgary residential by 15.6 per cent ($104 million) and 10.8 per cent for non-residential ($23 million).

The City of Calgary, in comparison, will be taking an additional $125 million overall, with $45 million due to increase in physical growth in new development and redevelopment.

Demong said in the past he’s tried to vote against the provincial requisition but was told that we couldn’t.

“The story is, we get raked over the coals for months on end on a three-and-a-half to five per cent property tax increase, the province, within a day, with no consultation, increases by over 17 per cent and we don’t hear a single comment from any media, opinion piece, editorial. How do I possibly circle this square with my constituents that that we as a city are doing our damndest to stay within our first appointed recommended rate, and the province just comes in with whatever they want. I’m trying to wrap my head around this,” Coun. Demong said.

“I’ve been doing this for 14 years, and this is the most egregious situation I’ve ever come across. It’s absolutely laughable.”

Councillors were told that the City of Calgary does try to make clear on property tax invoices what each level of government charges.

Justin Brattinga, senior press secretary for the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance, said that Alberta’s Minister of Education just announced 18 new schools for Calgary and area. He said the intent of the education portion of the property tax is to cover one third of education costs, but that hasn’t happened for several years. The additional education property tax won’t come close to covering those costs, he said.

City Council is making an attempt to save their re-election campaigns by blaming their rampant overspending on the province. Municipalities have collected education property taxes for over thirty years and this continues to be the case. This is an attempt to distract Calgarians from the fact that they are raising their property taxes for the fourth year in a row,” Brattinga wrote in an emailed response. 

“If the city can’t manage collecting the taxes we’re sure someone will step forward in October’s election that can. “

Sending an invoice back to cover collection costs

An amended version of the property tax bylaws were eventually approved by Calgary city councillors. Six voted against the City of Calgary increases.

There was, however, unanimous support for the City of Calgary to send the province an invoice for a ballpark of $10 million to cover the administrative costs of collecting the tax on behalf of the province.

“Could it be done? We could calculate the cost of our billing, invoicing, and process that shares this information with Calgarians. Applying the proportional percentage on that tax bill would get us to an amount that could be a proxy for costs,” said interim CFO Les Tochor.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek had initially asked if the province pays for staff time, invoices, the paper, the printing and other aspects related to the issuing of an invoice on their behalf.

Outside council chambers, Mayor Gondek said that the province just added $240 annually to the tax bill of Calgarians, and the City of Calgary will likely get blamed for it.

“This isn’t a political stunt. This wasn’t just a whim. This is something that we need to take seriously,” the mayor said.  

“We have been asked to manage taxpayer money, and in order to do that, if we are providing services to another order of government, we should be compensated for it.”

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp voted in favour of the amendment, but she wasn’t sure it’s the right fight to pick. She doesn’t expect to see a $10 million return cheque cut any time soon.

“It’s fine, it’s benign. I just hope they don’t take it the wrong way and then all of a sudden, we’re fighting in social media about 10 million when we need to be working together on a lot of projects moving forward that cost more than 10 million,” Coun. Sharp said.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said there’s probably a better way to make it clear to Calgarians which order of government is charging what on tax bills. Perhaps even a separate page showing what the City is collecting on behalf of the province.

“We’ve increased our transparency in regards to which element the municipality is responsible for in the tax bill,” Chabot said.

“But at the end of the day, people don’t take the time to look at who it is and what money is going to where. All they see is how much I have to pay.”

Property tax bills will come out May 12.