Municipalities were able to breathe a sigh of relief as the province is giving them a break on uncollectable education property taxes on oil and gas properties.
    In Alberta, municipalities collect education property taxes on behalf of the province. Oil and gas facilities are taxed until there is an abandoned status on the record of the Alberta Energy Regulator. This means the company could be long gone, however, the municipality is still on the hook for the education amount generated from the property.
    The province introduced the Provincial Education Requisition Credit (PERC). This will allow municipalities that have written off municipal property tax for oil and gas facilities to apply for a credit on the education amount.
    “I heard loud and clear during my visits to rural communities this summer that they are facing tax recovery challenges. So we made this a priority and worked with the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties to come up with this solution,” said Shaye Anderson, Minister of Municipal Affairs. “I am proud that we are able to make a difference and support municipalities.”
    Reeve of Kneehill County Jerry Wittstock is pleased with the decision.
        “Anytime we can’t collect taxes, yet are forced to pay them, it is not good for our county residents, so I think that if the province finally recognizes we can’t collect taxes then we should not have to submit them.
    He says the county’s bottom line has been affected by the slowdown in the oil and gas industry starting in 2014-15.
    “We’ve always had uncollectable taxes, but when the oil price dropped the juniors really took a hit and went bankrupt. We weren’t really able to collect our linear portion or education portion,” said Wittstock.
    The PERC will be retroactive to 2015, when oil process began to fall, and it will operate until 2019. It will only apply to oil and gas properties, and not any other uncollectible property taxes or senior housing requisitions.
    "Having to pay education tax to the government that couldn’t be collected has created significant financial challenges for our members. With the government’s support, municipalities can now focus on other matters, as we look forward to the long-term solution to this issue,” said Al Kemmere, president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties.
The cost estimates of the program will be determined once applications have been received from municipalities in the first intake covering 2015-2017. The program will be capped at $10 million per year.
    The first deadline for application is January 15, 2018.

    In an effort to shake things up and revitalize various procedures, Mayor Heather Colberg and council have agreed on new community representation across the Valley.
    This practice was attempted before, yielding poor results. Council plans on alleviating those problems by allowing the mayor and deputy mayor to do rotations to visit all communities.
    “Every deputy mayor does a two-month rotation. Therefore every two months, the communities will see somebody else,” said Colberg. “One of us will be there and hopefully in most cases, it will be both of us.”
    The communities of East Coulee, Midland, Nacmine, Newcastle, Rosedale, and Wayne will be visited to build a strong relationship with council on a quarterly basis. These communities were chosen as they have community associations and/or halls. This is an option for associations to utilize and is not a mandatory requirement.
    A program will also be put in place to keep councillors in the loop on current projects and activities once communication is established. E-mails are expected to be sent out to council members at the beginning of each month.
    “We’re going to create a program so automatically the next deputy mayor is aware of it and so that we don’t have something on the go and then the deputy mayor changes and it gets dropped. That’s got to be the priority,” explained Colberg.
    Some residents of Bankview have raised concerns over this system as they do not have a community association for council to reach out to.
They felt that their vote was for councillors to represent constituents of Drumheller as a whole.
    “We are available to all citizens at all times,” stated Colberg. “I want everybody from East Coulee to Nacmine to feel like we’re all the same people and this isn’t trying to make any communities feel more special than the others.”
    The mayor was open to other communities that do not currently have a hall, to come together to voice their ideas. The venue was not the primary concern.
    “We’re just trying to create open lines of communication,” said Colberg.
    “I just want happiness, I know it sounds cliche but it’s the truth.”
Colberg holds a vision of a connected and more prosperous Drumheller. This system could be a way to help bring that idea to life.
    “It’s to create that unified community that I’ve been dreaming of for a long time,” said Colberg.
    This system is currently in its infancy and will be adjusted as time goes on.
    “The wonderful thing about doing this by having the deputy mayor come is that everybody gets to know the councillors and that’s huge,” said Colberg. “Everybody gets the opportunity.”
    Council meetings begin at 4:30 p.m. every Monday on the top floor of Town Hall.