‘If it doesn’t make financial sense for us, how does it make sense for you guys to have 320 different tax departments?’ Smith asked politicians gathered at the Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is asking for feedback from municipalities about the province possibly taking over tax collection from cities and towns.
Smith made the suggestion Thursday at the Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer.
While sharing a stage with ABMunis president and Wetaskiwin Mayor Tyler Gandam, Smith said doing so could be one way for the province to lighten the financial load for municipalities.
“We can reduce the amount of burden on that so that you can put those dollars towards the programs that that are more meaningful to your citizens,” she said, noting the complexities of the tax system are often lost on residents.
“Everybody’s mad at you about what the tax bill looks like, because they don’t see the difference between what the province collects and you collect.”
Smith said her government had examined collecting its own personal incomes taxes instead of the federal government but rejected the idea due to a projected $1 billion in administration costs.
“We have, the reverse relationship with all of you,” she said. “If it doesn’t make financial sense for us, how does it make sense for you guys to have 320 different tax departments?”
The concept was met with little immediate reaction from the more than 1,000 municipal officials in attendance, which Smith acknowledged, though Gandam appeared enthusiastic.
“You have 1,100 people in this room thinking how great it would be if a tax bill came from the province, not the municipality, and maybe not everybody yelling at us,” he said, resulting in a round of cheers from those there.
“I think they were quiet because they were daydreaming about how great that would be.”
The idea appeared to come off the cuff with Smith joking that her staff were getting nervous as she went off script.
“When I get into radio show host mode, my staff, they tighten up, because they know they don’t know what I’m going to say. But, what the heck, I may as well,” she said.
“I’d actually be very interested to know how much resources and money that would free up for you if we took that burden off of you.”
On Friday, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver, a former Calgary city councillor, said the positive reception to the idea caught him off guard.
“A lot of people cheered which kind of surprised me because I kind of thought municipalities might want to keep control of that,” he said.
“I understand it’s work. It’s expense. And, when you send to the tax bills with the city or municipal logo on it, you get the blame if you will when people don’t like the number that on the other side of the page.”
McIver added, “I don’t think anything has been decided.”
Gandam said he and Smith will meet to discuss the issue and others in the coming weeks.