The City of Calgary has sent the Government of Alberta a $10 million invoice for services rendered in the collection of the education portion of the property tax.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek met with the media on Monday and said that the City of Calgary was following through on a council decision back in March to recoup the costs of collecting millions in tax payments for the province.  

Annually, Calgary taxpayers are charged a provincial education tax that is collected as part of the property tax bill. Recently, the City of Calgary has created a clearer breakdown of the provincial charges, as many residents see the increase and often blame the City for scooping the additional cash from their pockets.

Mayor Gondek said that the $10 million invoice is a symbol of fairness and accountability, particularly in the face of a 15.6 per cent increase to the education portion of the property tax in Calgary.  The mayor said it means an extra $218 for average Calgary ratepayers, while Edmonton residents are only paying $90.

“This is incredibly unfair. Two hundred eighteen dollars from every Calgary home goes directly into the province’s general revenues. The money can and will be used to subsidize the rest of Alberta,” she said.

“That looks an awful lot like equalization, taking from Calgary, from our success and our growth, and spending it elsewhere.”

Mayor Gondek said the $10 million to collect the education tax could be used elsewhere in the city, whether it’s on aging infrastructure, increasing transit or fixing roads, or clearing snow.

“We drive this province’s success. Yet time and time again, the province uses Calgary as a financial crutch,” Mayor Gondek said.

“Instead of reinvesting here, they take more and give back less, and Calgarians are the ones who are left paying the price.”

Premier Smith open to talks on tax collection

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in response to questions from reporters on Monday, said that she’d be open to discussions on a central tax collection option. She said this is the way that it’s been done for the past 30 years, but it’s something she raised with the Alberta Municipalities Association.

“It’s sort of a good conversation about the cost-effectiveness of having 320 tax collection bureaus at the municipal level,” she said.

“I’m quite happy to start that conversation, if they feel like the cost of tax collection has become too onerous.”

Mayor Gondek said it’s important to highlight today how the City of Calgary is once again footing the bill for something that’s a provincial responsibility.

City councillors have talked at length about the municipal fiscal gap and how much it costs the City annually to support those services.

“If they are the ones that are setting a tax rate and then want to collect money, they should probably be the ones who do that, and if they don’t want to be, if they expect us to do it, there is a fee for service,” the mayor said.

“We can’t simply keep providing everything for free to the provincial government.”

The mayor said that it took some time for the billing to be completed, and once that was done, they were in a position to produce the invoice.

The question is, will the province pay it?

“As an optimist, I would like to believe that the province is interested in paying their bills,” she said.

“Do I expect that they will? Hard to tell.”

There was no indication whether the City wanted 30-day payment terms.