Press Release AMR

Beaver County Council is pleased and grateful for the announcement from Minister Allard and Premier Kenney regarding the Assessment Model Review this week. Minister Allard announced a short-term strategy to attempt to balance municipal and industry sustainability, while charting a path forward to achieve a long-term solution regarding taxation of oil and gas properties. The short-term solution is still being reviewed by the County, but it appears that the loss of tax revenue from industrial property taxation is well below $200,000, instead of the worst case scenario being discussed this year of a loss of about $3,000,000 in tax revenue.

County Council would like to thank our MLA’s Jackie Lovely and Rick Wilson for their advocacy and for the hard work of RMA (Rural Municipalities of Alberta) Board and staff to achieve this solution. Most importantly, we would like to thank our residents, businesses and regional partners (Towns of Tofield and Viking, Villages of Ryley and Holden) who expressed your concerns about rural sustainability to the Province and industry stakeholders. Without your voice, this may not have been possible.

The County continues to look for savings and efficiencies, as this is a short-term reprieve to a bigger problem. Until the Province and Beaver County region sees growth and employment return to pre-pandemic levels, we understand that our taxpayers need us to keep a check on spending and continue to be wise with their dollars. We also want to thank our industry partners who have struggled in the past several years but are continuing to contribute to the County and to our communities.

Thanks again,

Jim Kallal, Reeve
Beaver County