MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – County council has instructed administration to await further information and direction from the province before proceeding with the 2020 operating budget and tax rate bylaw.
The move came came by way of motion during the April 1 council meeting, which was held by teleconference under new provincial COVID-19 regulations in support of social distancing.
“We don’t know what they are going to do with linear or the education tax,” said reeve Bruce Beattie. “We are waiting to see what the impacts are going to be and how we are going to administer those. The two issues are how much they want and how we are going to administer those.
“We need to understand exactly what they want us to do and we just don’t have that clarity right now. Until we have that message we can’t really make any decision relative to the total budget.”
Asked if the county knows when the province may come back with further information and direction, he said no.
“They’ve got lots on their plate,” he said. “Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later. I expect the province will want to get this done as soon as possible.”
Robert Beaupertuis, director of corporate services, told council that the current deadlines to pass the tax rate bylaw and the budget is May 1.
“This may change with the pandemic measures,” he said. “The province is going to delay half the education levy for non-residential rolls.
“Exact details on how this will work are not known at this time. The province is also asking municipalities to delay 50 per cent of their portion of property tax. For the county that would mean delaying $10.8 million. This is expected to be a multi-year program.”
Meanwhile, council instructed administration to provide an update on possible property tax deferral at this week’s council meeting.
“We’ve asked administration to come back with some proposals on those,” said Beattie. “We are looking at incentives and we are looking at the potential of reducing penalties, but we haven’t made a decision on that.
“We are looking at those but we haven’t put any numbers beside them because until council makes the decision we are just looking at options.”
Beaupertuis said, “Administration recommends waiting until after the province has announced their tax relief measures before making any decisions in regard to Mountain View County’s property tax penalties.”
In a letter received by council, provincial Minister of Municipal Affairs Kaycee Madu said, “I encourage your municipality to consider deferment plans for the municipal portion of the non-residential property tax (and) property owners are encouraged to pass these savings on to business tenants.”
All councillors attended the April 1 council meeting, the first held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
