The Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) says unpaid property taxes by companies in the oil and gas industry are becoming a problem across the Province.

RMA says according to a new survey of their members, property taxes in arrears are up by an estimated 114 per cent from to roughly $173 million dollars from last year.

Foothills County CAO, Harry Riva Cambrin, says while they know there's an expanding problem in other municipalities, we're doing pretty well all things considered.

"Our problems started quite a few years back, earlier than what you're seeing today from RMA. How this all took place for us was mostly in natural gas. As the price became lower and lower the operations of places like the Mazeppa gas plant and wells and pipelines became money losers versus earning income for the companies. So naturally the companies started to walk away from their facilities and stopped paying their municipal taxes and lease payments to land owners."

"As the County continued to provide services and infrastructure to the companies, it became a problem when they stopped being paid" said Riva Cambrin.

"You know, the original write off for us about four or five years ago totaled about $4 million dollars so that was quite painful to get through. Of course we're on the other side of that now." Riva Cambrin adds "For the most part, most of the companies are good and only one right now is in serious arrears but it's not a large amount like we had in the first batch of write off's from a company called Lexin."

This year one company owes approximately $70,000 to Foothills County which is an easier pill to swallow for the County's finance department.

"We're luckier than our neighbours in Vulcan County and Willow Creek. In Vulcan, the new company that's going under has many more facilities in their area and not as many in ours, so they're getting the double whammy."

Riva Cambrin says often times when property taxes go unpaid the County will attempt to seize property, but in these cases there's nothing really to seize.

"We did receive some refunds from the Province through things like the education tax and also some minor amounts from the receiver but for the most part we're left holding the bag. When it comes to oil and gas facilities there's really nothing there to take and if the company has no assets there's nothing there to grab onto either."

The Province is trying to help out municipalities by refunding the education tax portion that municipalities collect on behalf of the Province, which can equal about 35 per cent of the total tax bill, but that leaves municipalities like Foothills County covering the remainder of the bill.

Luckily for Foothills County, diversity has been key to overcoming the loss of oil and gas revenue.

A tactic Riva Cambrin says they'll continue as they intend to make Aldersyde more attractive to industrial businesses and investors such as green energy companies.

 

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