Mountain View County council has set Sept. 21 as the sale date on properties listed for back taxes.Fourteen properties were listed for tax sale as of May 2, corporate services director Greg Wiens told council that day at its regular meeting.“We do have quite a few listed for sale now,” Wiens said. “Our hope is that it will be down to zero” before Sept. 21.Properties that appear on the list have been in arrears for three years, Wiens said,“They would have got tax notices every year, penalties, reminders in October, then a notice in January-February that they will be put on the list. Then in September for those still on the list sometimes our patrol people will go out to the property and give notice. So we do a lot to give notice,” he said.Div. 1 Coun. Kevin Good said there could be situations where the owners are not aware that their taxes are in arrears.“I'm concerned that we can't rely only on mail,” Good said. “If we're only assuming they know, that's not good enough.”“Don't you assume,” Reeve Bruce Beattie asked, “that if you own land you pay taxes on it? I don't expect my county to deliver my tax notice personally.”“I can think of situations – estate probates that take four or five years to settle,” Good said.“I understand the concern, and it's a significant issue,” Beattie said, “but we have to figure out where does personal responsibility come in?”Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere said he felt the same way as Good during his first years on council, but is always amazed by how quickly the tax-sale list shrinks after it gets published.Council voted in favour of the Sept. 21 date, with Good opposed.By last Thursday, the list of properties was down by three to 11, Wiens told the Gazette.The list is currently on the notice bulletin board at the county office and Wiens said it will be published in the Alberta Gazette likely in June or July and then published locally in early to mid September.
