The town is working on a pair of bylaws which would provide tax incentives for new businesses and ones moving into vacant buildings.

Draft bylaws were presented to council at their meeting on November 13 which would waive municipal property taxes for new businesses in town for their first year, subject to administration’s approval. In addition, businesses who move into buildings vacant for a minimum for three months could see development and business license fees waived.

The bylaw comes from recommendations of the Economic Development Task Force and were brought to council by councillor Fred Makowecki. The move is part of a number of projects and initiatives from the town to attract and retain businesses to Drumheller, including upcoming bylaws such as ensuring businesses along the tourism corridor are clean and tidy, changes to the storefront improvement grant for downtown businesses, and the installation of the summer plaza and public artwork downtown.

“There are so many other things percolating that are tied together,” says councillor Makowecki.

The rationale behind these draft bylaws is to bring more business to Drumheller, which increases the tax base, creates more reasons for people and other businesses to move here, and also gives new businesses with assistance in their first year of business, which is often the most difficult.

“If taxes remain exactly the same, we’re going to keep the existing businesses and residences to fund the operation of the town. The only way to affect that, is by looking at the budget and microscopically look at expenses and also look at incentives to bring more tax base to town. That means more jobs, more places to go shopping, and make Drumheller more attractive for people to move here.

The municipal property tax waiver would come in effect for the year following completion of construction. Additions, expansions, and renovations would be eligible only if the assessed value of the new improvement is greater than or equal to $50,000 more than the previous improvement assessment.

The bylaws received feedback from council at the meeting and are expected to be brought back at a meeting this month.

Federal finance minister Bill Morneau rolled out the fall fiscal update on Wednesday, saying the government is focusing on economic competitiveness and boosts to some areas of the economy, but the Conservatives and Battle River-Crowfoot MP Kevin Sorenson say the update doesn’t do much to help Alberta’s economic woes.

The update introduced new measures to encourage Canadian investment, including tax incentives worth $14 billion over five years, boosts to Canada’s fishing and forestry industries, as well as setting export diversification and strategic innovation strategies, however, issues concerning Alberta’s oil and gas industry and questions around an oil pipeline were not addressed.

“When I look at this, I think ‘what here is going to benefit Alberta?’ A lot of it has been ignored,” Mr. Sorenson told the Mail from Ottawa. “There are some little things in there, but there’s really nothing about how we’re going to get oil to port, to get jobs into Alberta, to pay down debt – all those fundamentals of a strong economy aren’t there.”

He says some positives from the update include a new tax incentive program which would allowing manufacturers and the cleantech industry to write off capital costs. But there isn’t enough there to help a Canadian economy as debt levels continue to rise and areas of the country seeing unemployment and a shrinking middle-class, Sorenson says.

“I think we heard some things we expected, and some things that we think are troublesome, and little tidbits that are positive as well, but the devil is in the details and the more you get into this document the more you realize that Canadians are going faster and deeper into debt than we’ve ever been. The pace is quickening, our debt is piling up, and the government has no plan to come to a balanced budget.”

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Calgary on Thursday to speak to Mayor Naheed Nenshi and some corporate parties, Alberta’s finance minister Joe Ceci was reported to have said Ottawa “is living in a different economic planet,” as both he and Premier Rachel Notley criticized the financial update as being unresponsive to needs of Alberta’s oil patch.

Sorenson, who was the former Minister of State for Finance under Stephen Harper, agrees. He says Trudeau and his Liberals of reneged on election promises to keep the federal deficit capped at $10 billion, but the report now predicts the country’s deficit levels rising to almost twice that.

“I know the budget doesn’t balance itself. The problem with an attitude like that is this concept that we can just keep spending. It’s like giving your 16-year-old your credit card and saying ‘here, have a good time.” You don’t know how good of a time they’ll have and you don’t know how big of a bill you’ll have at the end of the day,” he said.