Woodlands County Council had a meeting last week with West Yellowhead MLA Martin Long, and MLA for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, Glenn Van Dijken, and council’s main concern for the elected officials was oil and gas tax arrears.
Members asked about where the province was at in terms of collecting outstanding tax payments from oil and gas companies, and the response was that it is still currently a work in progress.
A new report released this month by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) reveals that the oil and gas industry owes rural counties and districts $245 million in unpaid property taxes.
Woodlands County Mayor John Burrows says it’s been difficult having information change between multiple Ministers of Municipal Affairs.
“The MLA’s that we’re dealing with, they’ve been hearing us pound the drum exactly the same way for three years since this all has begun happening,” says Burrows. “We have different points of contact within the government and that’s the big issue that we’re dealing with right now.”
Burrows then adds, “I’ve made the speech and we’ve been at lots of meetings with Minister Madu when he was Minister of Municipal Affairs, and then with Minister Allard, and now we have the interim Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ric McIver. I haven’t been Mayor for two full years yet and I’m on my third Minister of Municipal Affairs, and we’re three years dealing with this particular issue.”
Burrows says Woodlands County also wants to make clear to the province that there is a “big difference” when comparing oil and gas companies still in operation that are choosing not to pay their taxes to companies that have gone bankrupt and can’t pay.
“We need to get that message across and there was a recent forum where we were able to pose that same question to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, the newest Minister McIver, and he said he was actually seeking input from the various municipalities on how to deal with it,” Burrows explains.
Woodlands County has given the province some ideas, but Burrows says he has no idea if that input has transferred hands from Minister to Minister or through staff or not.
As a result of that, Burrows says they don’t know where they are at with things currently and will have to reach out to the Minister of Municipal Affairs directly for an update.
Burrows added that he has so far not had any problems trying to have meetings with the current Minister about issues such as the assessment model review or the uncollected taxes.
“We’re getting the meetings that we need, we’re getting their ears,” he says. “We just don’t know if it’s being heard at the provincial level.”
