RMA and Alberta release final report on property tax accountability strategy

0:00I want to talk to you about something that's happening here in our city this week and a question to you What happens when you don't pay your taxes on Edmonton it's about a 15% fine for any outstanding property tax bill federally, if you don't pay your taxes, it's 5% to start, but it can actually get as high as 200% What about unpaid taxes for energy companies in Alberta? Well, as we've heard on the show before it's hardly an easy answer as companies owed more than 250 million in back taxes and that led to rural leaders pleading for help from the province to stop companies from Stiffing them. Well today it looks like we might have gotten some help on that file And so I want to bring back into the show Some of we've had this conversation with many many times and someone I'm looking to hopefully eventually stop having this Conversation with because I don't mean something good happened for it. I care Westeland President of the rural municipalities of Alberta joins us on the line. Good afternoon Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I want to get into what happened today

1:04But I do want to ask you real quickly because I keep throwing at that $253 million dollar number I've been using that for the last few months. You guys do a survey annually on this with your member communities I know you you started that in February. I don't if you had any results on that But any sense as to what the number might be right now So we are still compiling and verifying the data that we collected so the focus right now is the on the implementation of the announcement today with the P task The P task announcement We did make some methodology changes based on the discussion that we had on the property tax Accountability strategy as to how to ask for the information what is most important etc So we are trending towards similar or increased level of impact and similar level of fresh your rears That we're going to see that we've seen in 2025 But we are really focusing on right now The announcement earlier today and hopefully the success that we are going to see with that Yeah, well, let's let's talk about that right because we're talking about you know

2:06$250 million that could go towards highways or rural roads or you know other Infrastructure where you guys have a significant deficit This report today laying out 17 recommendations to tackle the unpaid oil gas property tax issue from your Expect from your looks obviously you've been involved in the the the creation of this that the conversation around this does this have teeth It absolutely does so if the full suite of recommendation is implemented It will have teeth in terms of allowing me a yard to finally take enforcement action Up to and including suspending or placing conditions on licenses for non-team and taxes So previously the AR interpreted their mandate and regulatory powers is not allowing for action on the sole basis of Unpaid taxes except in some very specific circumstances such as a ministerial order preventing a license transfers of company with the rears that the exceeding our excess of $20,000 So the recommendations if they're implemented will allow for the action to be taken only due to the non-payment taxes were

3:09Guardless of the company is broader regulatory performance So it's going to be extremely helpful both in terms of taking action on the unpaid taxes and using the unpaid taxes as a Stronger factor in informing broader compliance and enforcement actions. So we're incredibly excited today And we really truly are hoping that this is going to to put an end Once and for all the loopholes that are that exist indeed And now are we talking about recovering unpaid taxes from companies that are still operating that still lowers this more of a a look forward kind of process 100% this is a look forward It's going to be most impactful on a go-forward basis as a focus is on requiring a compliance from operating companies So however, you know, we were talking numbers earlier last year's numbers survey showed that about 67 million in the a fresh unpaid taxes occurred just in the 2024 tax year alone So this suggests that there are still active companies currently not paying our taxes to a significant degree So if these recommendations are implemented quickly, which we were hoping for they should have an immediate impact in helping municipalities

4:16recover our rears from the active companies, but absolutely You know what we're we're not sugarcoating it. We know the majority of The rears is from companies that are insolvent or bankrupt or just you know, frankly don't exist anymore now one of the other things that came out of this report here was it talked about you know better data sharing It talked about enhanced communication and I know when in our conversations in the past that you know It always hasn't been smooth sailing when when you guys are trying to get on the same pages the government But it feels like at least with this part of the the conversation around funding for municipalities and taxes for municipalities It sounds like you guys might actually be there So I extremely happy and excited to share The recommendations and the work that's been worked on for the last year on the PTAs force The government the GOA has been at the table every single step and every single word and presentation Both been its full affairs and the industry energy ministry as well as AER

5:17And at the table industry cap and ePAC have been there So I think that's what's different in the past and trying to trying to find some resolution to to the issue that we're facing This is the first time ever that literally we all sat in a room together You know put our differences aside and really focused on what the issue was and that's the unpaid municipal tax portion And and and copped up with solutions That were you know come directly from the municipalities, but even conjunction with work with those two key ministries as well as the AR at the table Yeah, well it's it's amazing what happens when people can actually talk about the issues right I did want to get your thoughts on just because we talked earlier this year But you're closing the gap campaign which focused on the rural infrastructure deficit 20 some billion dollars on that and you guys took a thoughtful throw analysis of the budget here You guys just released your budget analysis on Friday So taking a look at that taking a look at the five-week campaign that you launched here Where are things in that conversation with the government?

6:19So we continue to seek the opportunity to collaborate directly with the DOA on both the improved and more strategic funding approaches as well as a partnership and better understanding the infrastructure Condition of risk and strategic investment at this point government response has been pretty limited Both in terms of funding and non-funding apps the budget obviously It was disappointing in terms of missing the chance to address some of the short short-term That we laid out But we are going to continue to push for the longer-term partnership and again that willingness to sit at the table And I think you know tying it back to PTA's it showed that the DOA in RMA Can absolutely sit down at a table collaborate together work and build some common Issue understanding and you know what most importantly that we can come together for solutions And so we're really hoping that the similar approach can be taken with our closing the gap campaign And I'm fairly optimistic Coming months of the coming weeks and the coming days that we can take that kind of near the same approach that we took Um and be successful with that

7:21Yeah, well certainly good to see the pendulum swinging in the right direction to make sure that Some of the deficits you guys are dealing with out there that you know every day Alpertons use and some capacity right because that's the thing we're all in this together one way or another We're all going to wind up paying for it So it the more the money that we can get from the the the companies to to kind of address that the better a carrot Glad that we were able to to put a positive spin on this conversation because I know that hasn't always been the case Gated the breath of fresh air for sure. Thank you very much. There you go Carewistland president of the rural municipalities of Alberta. They got their big go ha Second to they've got their big meeting here in Edmonton this week as well So they made that announcement this morning about the new Plan going forward to try and collect on back taxes