Mayor and Council hold the line on property taxes

Over the course of a week in November and a half-year of consultation with more than 24,000 Calgarians, your City Council approved a budget and business plan that reflects the priorities of Calgarians. The tax increase approved by Council was six per cent which, while higher than I would have liked, maintained our taxes as amongst the lowest in Canada.

However, in an example of the antiquated relationship between cities and the provincial government, the province invoiced the City of Calgary for its portion of the property tax. Simply put: the province surprised Calgarians by asking for 7.2 per cent more on residential property tax.

Since about half of the property tax you pay goes directly to the Province, and the City has no control over the rate or use of these funds, this would have meant a blended increase of 6.5 per cent (six per cent to the City and 7.2 per cent to the Province). 

(The Calgary Herald editorial board has shared its own opinion on this issue.)

This put my Council colleagues and me into a into a challenging position: either break faith with citizens and allow the increase to happen or pull from a fund designed to pay for City debt and infrastructure to hold the line on property taxes.

After much debate, we chose to do the latter (by reallocating $5 million of the $15 million tax room vacated by the province) to keep the tax increase to what we promised Calgarians back in November 2011. 

Unfortunately, this solution is not ideal—it still means less for Calgarians based on the whims of the province. Of course, my colleagues and I will raise this issue (and other issues pertaining to the relationship between cities and the province) during the coming provincial election at CitiesMatter.ca.

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi