INNISFAIL – Innisfail homeowners could see an extra increase in their property tax bills this year due to the provincial government’s increased education tax grab on municipalities.
On March10 at council’s regular meeting, Erica Vickers, the town’s director of corporate services, presented a report for a 2025 education property tax and budget adjustment.
Vickers reminded council the education property tax is a mandatory provincial levy collected by municipalities on behalf of the province.
“These funds provide a stable and sustainable revenue source for Alberta’s kindergarten to Grade 12 education system, supporting all public and separate school students by contributing to basic instructional costs such as teacher salaries, classroom resources, and textbooks,” said Vickers.
However, the cost is rising and municipal taxpayers will feel the pinch.
Last February’s 2025 provincial budget called for a $400-million increase to Alberta’s school tax requisition this year, from $2.7 billion in 2024-25 to $3.1 billion in 2025-26.
Council was told that in the 2025-26 fiscal year, the proportion of education costs funded through property taxes is set to rise to 31.6 per cent, up from 29.5 per cent in 2024-25 and 28 per cent in 2023-24.
Municipalities, including Innisfail, now must adjust their budgets to account for increased education property tax (EPT) collection and the potential impact on other services and programs.
“The increase in education property tax rates will affect all property owners in Innisfail, as the town is required to collect and remit these funds to the province,” said Vickers.
Her report to council included 2024 and 2025 requisition amounts that showed a 12 per cent education property tax increase for the community, which comes out to be an extra $379,448 that must be collected and sent to the province.
“To support this increase from the province, we do need to create a budget adjustment so that it can flow in our budget to show the accurate numbers,” said Vickers. “So, we are looking to adjust the tax revenue for schools account to show that increase of $379,000.”
As far as how much more property owners will have to pay this year, Vickers said the 2025 education tax calculations have not yet been finalized.
She said the numbers will become clearer for residents when she brings in the 2025 Tax Bylaw to council, possibly later this month but more likely on April 14.
“In that we'll look at the impact entirely from our municipal tax, the school tax, as well as the seniors requisition, and see how that impacts from one year to the next,” Vickers told the Albertan.
However, she estimated that for a home valued at $400,000, and not factoring increases to assessment and municipal property taxes, it could come to an extra $38 for the entire year, or about $3.16 a month.
Vickers told council through her report there will be no effect on the town’s contingency, as it will remain at zero dollars.
“When we passed our budget in December for 2025 our expenses and our revenues equaled out at the same,” Vickers told the Albertan. “Our contingency was zero.
“So really that's just saying our contingencies remaining at zero and our expenses and our revenues for the 2025 calendar budget year is equal.”
She said administration will promote these changes to the public through the town’s regular communication channels, including social media, the Town Voice in the Albertan, and utility bill inserts.
Vickers added a property tax brochure is being developed to provide residents with key information on tax rates, assessments, and payment options.
She said the brochure will be included with the tax notices when they are mailed out in April.
“The communications part is key, and I know we have a workshop coming up this weekend, so I would really like to talk about how we can get this message in front of the community,” said Coun. Janis Wing in her comments following Vickers’ presentation.
“As was noted last week in Edmonton, municipal councils will look like the bad guys in this, she added. “It's worth the conversation about, ‘why do we fund education? What's the value of education?’ You shouldn't be a good guy and a bad guy but we're getting labelled with this one.”
Council unanimously approved Vickers’ recommended budget adjustments.
