DIDSBURY - Council received an updated report from administration regarding annexation and property tax on land that was annexed by the Town of Didsbury from Mountain View County in 2008.
For 10 years residents in that area had been paying the smaller county tax rate. That changed on Jan. 1, 2018 and now those residents affected are paying at the higher town rate.
Council also carried a motion to accept property tax on annexed farm property as per the 2007 agreement, and another motion to accept property tax on annexed acreage as per the 2007 agreement.
"2018 was the first year that the annexed lands were taxed at town rates as per the agreement," Amanda Riley, chief financial officer for Didsbury, told the Gazette.
In the background information provided to council, staff stated that, "Under this agreement for the taxation period in 2008 and in subsequent years until Dec. 31, 2017, the annexed lands and assessable improvements to it must be assessed by the town on the same basis as if they had remained in MVC, and must be taxed using either MVC or Town of Didsbury municipal tax rates, whichever is lower."
The tax rate for residential (farm property homestead parcel of land - 3 acres) in Didsbury is 8.30, while in MVC it is 2.87, for a difference of 5.43. Land used for farming (farm land) is 8.30 in Didsbury and 8.18 in MVC.
Library budget
In other council news, council approved the Parkland Regional Library system's 2019 proposed budget. The budget includes an increase to the municipal per capita requisition of 13 cents. The per capita requisition amount went up from 8.12 to 8.25.
Coun. Bill Windsor, the council representative on the Parkland library board, said there are only a couple of significant changes in the budget from the previous year. He referenced the section of the budget dealing with salaries.
"This is impacting pretty much every organization in the country in terms of minimum wage going up, certainly Alberta," said Windsor. "That's a significant get that all of us are going to experience, and the Parkland Regional Library is no exception."
Windsor said another one of the other significant changes was dealing with the e-content platform fees.
"This is for payment of fees for e-books and e-games and all kinds of electronic subscriptions," he said. "There has been a huge demand by member libraries for an increase in this. That's why they have put a significant increase towards that in this particular budget."
Mayor Rhonda Hunter voted against approving the Parkland library budget contribution.
"I felt that I could not support a budget that showed a 1.6 per cent increased requisition to member municipalities, including Didsbury, when we don't know what we're facing with our own budget," said Hunter. "Any increase by any outside requisition is going to have an effect on the town's budget, and it would be premature, in my opinion, to approve a budget that is asking for more money from our taxpayers without having an idea what our budget numbers are looking like first."
Energy rate
After a report from CFO Amanda Riley, council discussed the possibility of having the town switch from a variable rate for energy to a fixed rate.
The background information stated that, "the town currently uses Direct Energy as an energy retailer for both natural gas and electricity. At this time both natural gas and electricity are at a variable rate, and fluctuate based on the market. There is also a small index fee based on units of energy consumed that are charged for each.
Prior to April 2018, the variable price was typically the better price in comparison to locking in. Given that electricity prices have continually increased in the past several months, administration is considering going with a fixed rate for electricity."
Administration has pursued receiving pricing from two parties for fixed electricity rates: Direct Energy (the current provider) and AMSC.
"In the last several months, the price of electricity has gone up due to provincial legislation and a main driver of that was closing down the coal mines early, which drove the price of electricity up," said Riley to council.
Council voted to continue with a variable rate for energy for the following year and review the possibility of going with a fixed rate in September 2019.
"I believe we all recall the year of deregulation when so many long-term contracts were entered at very high fixed rates when the variable rate stayed constant and lower, on average, which realized a big savings compared to those who entered into contracts," said Hunter. "This has tended to be the constant (variable rates being very favourable), and council supported staying with that for at least another year."
Upgrade project
Council approved an amendment to the capital budget for the butte pumphouse upgrade to $260,160, including $87,500 financed by the AMWWP (Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership) grant, and the remaining $172,660 to come from the water reserve fund.
The butte upgrade was previously budgeted for $175,000, with financing split between reserves and grants.
Greg Skotheim, manager of public works and infrastructure for the town, spoke to council about the project and the funding.
"We were always a medium priority, not a high priority (for the AMWWP grant)," said Skotheim. "The CAO (Harold Northcott) and administration did more lobbying, saying 'we're getting really concerned about our pumphouse. Water is really important to this town. This pumphouse gives us increased pressure, fire capacity.' So there are pretty significant reasons to move forward with this."
Skotheim told the Gazette that the original budget for the project was based on a 2013 study conducted by ISL Engineering.
"Over time there has been an increase in costs and when the tenders came in they were higher than initially expected," he said. "Council reviewed and approved the tender in July, however, the budget was not amended at that time. The tender price was $206,610 plus a 10 per cent contingency and 8.8 per cent engineering costs for a total amended budget of $247,271."
Skotheim said that equipment for the upgrade is expected to arrive in November.
"We expect the project to be completed before the new year," he said. "New VFD pumps and online chlorine monitoring are some of the upgrades we are looking forward to."
