Provincial tax increase hits close to home

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore has distributed notice that local property owners will see a significant increase in their property tax bills this year due to a provincial education property tax requisition. 

The requisition was announced in Alberta’s 2025 budget, which was released on Feb. 27. As a result, Strathmore’s total school tax requisition is increased by 22 per cent from $5,953,657 in 2024, to $7,251,997.

“The Town of Strathmore, the CAO, the finance department, and council worked really hard in the fall of 2024 to put together what we thought was a really good property tax increase as far as our budget for 2025. We were really cognizant and aware of people in the economic situation that we have been in with the inflation rate being so high,” said Mayor Pat Fule. “We all really worked to get the property tax rate as low as we could, and we came up with a 3.62 per cent rate for 2025. I know a lot of people are always concerned about tax increases, but it is really hard to do a zero per cent increase and take money from reserves. That is not really financially sustainable because inflation does not quit.”

Fule emphasized the province’s decision and budget occurred following the passing of the town’s budget, must be followed, and is not within the town’s control to abate. 

He added he, and members of council are disappointed by the decision, citing that it undoes much of the work done by the town to keep tax increases as low as possible. He expressed further frustration due to the fact that much of the requisition funds will not be put back into assisting local schools.

Commercial property owners will also be affected by the province’s requisition, as their education levies will be increased from $1,195,802 in 2024 to $1,403,028 in 2025. 

For an average Strathmore residential property assessed at $491,800, the provincial education property tax will equate to an increase of nearly $275 this year. 

The town has indicated this is more than 2.3 times the expected increase of approximately $120 for the municipal tax portion. 

“It is just a huge increase. We are shocked by it. I am disappointed and I hope everyone in Strathmore understands that mayor and council also pay property taxes because we live in Strathmore, so we are getting the same hit as everybody else,” said Fule. “It is just so disappointing because we worked so hard to get a 3.62 per cent increase, and the average of all municipalities in Alberta this coming year was 5.22 per cent. We are one of the very lowest in all the towns and municipalities around Calgary. We have one of the lowest increases, but it is basically being undone by the provincial increase in education property taxes.”

The Government of Alberta determines how much each municipality must collect from property owners for the public education system based on assessed property values each year. 

Each respective municipality is responsible for collecting these taxes on behalf of the province but have no control or say over rates. This year’s education property tax increase places Strathmore sixth among towns and 20th among all municipalities for the highest percentage increase.

Province-wide, education property tax increases are rising from $2.7 billion seen in 2024-25 to $3.1 billion in 2025-26. Further increases are anticipated in future years.

“There has been a problem as far as not enough money going into education in our province, and now the property taxes have gone up. I hope they use it for things that are really going to benefit the students in the classroom,” said Fule. “The thing I hope for, if they get all these increases coming to them, will (be that) they consult teachers and administrators to best use the money so that students can be helped the most.”

Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner, and Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Chantelle de Jonge did not respond to requests for comment prior to the publication of this article.