Last spring I received our land taxes. I noticed what I thought was a huge mistake. Our taxes on one of our properties had gone up 923 per cent. Yes, that's nine hundred and twenty-three per cent.
I went into the Red Deer County office to point out this mistake to the assessor. She said no. This land is now considered residential.
I said that can't be, as no one has ever lived on this land. It's two kilometres off the road. There are no services and it's landlocked by other properties.
She said we found what appears to be a campground. This so-called "campground" has been used and made by my son. It consists of a firepit, two homemade picnic tables and a porta-potty that was given to him. Yes, and a 35-year-old old child's swing set he fixed up. He and his cousin and their families used it once last year. Some years it gets used twice. I believe it is irrelevant how often it is used, if it belongs to our family and they are using it. No profit is being made from this property (it is less than a quarter of an acre).
I asked the assessor how anyone would ever find such a spot. Apparently Red Deer County hired a company out of Sherwood Park to look for such things.
A satellite image showed some anomaly. The company then trespassed over two kilometres through cropland, two closed gates, and took ground pictures for the county.
So now I'm really not happy. So I decided to speak with the county mayor Jim Wood. He agreed it was an unfair tax, but said this is a provincial law, not a county law and would check into it.
After a week or so I went back to check in on the progress and out of the goodness of their hearts they lowered our taxes to only a 500 per cent increase.
Common sense tells you this law was put into place for stopping illegal campgrounds, which I agree with. Many municipalities use common sense but never enforce this law. Others implemented it and then took it off again. I suspect common sense overrules in these jurisdictions.
So, if you are getting these taxes, or maybe haven't gotten taxed yet, complain!
And remember the media works best. A letter on some assessor's desk or in a file means nothing.
To top off all this stupidity, this land would be eligible for the ALUS program. That is where the government pays you to be good stewards of the land and leave something for wildlife.
Only government could pay you to not use it and then another arm taxes you because you're not using it. Yikes! If you don't like something and do nothing you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
What tax will they think of next?
Brian Mose
Elnora
