Notes from Council, April 2026
Dear Residents & Ratepayers,
There were two meetings of Council in April and one meeting of the Budget Committee. Between regular council business and a public hearing for a land use bylaw rezoning application, April 1st ended up being a lengthy day. Council undertook some administrative updates to the Linear Tax Stability bylaw, as well as providing a letter of support for the Marquis Foundation seniors housing project. While the former provides predictable levels of taxation for large linear assets, the latter is necessary for funding agreements with the Province of Alberta and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to move towards construction of a new seniors lodge. Also at this meeting, Council adopted a Shotgun Policy to enable Community Peace Officers to have a humane way to dispatch animals should it not be possible to get a wildlife officer on scene when needed. Council chose not to extend this authority to agricultural fieldman at this time.
The Public Hearing that occurred during the April 1st Regular Meeting took 4 hours to wrap-up. This Public Hearing was for a Land Use Bylaw amendment to redesignate 850 acres from Rural General to Rural Industrial, with the stated motivation being the development of a Data Processing facility. Administration encouraged attendees to sign-in and they recorded 107 registrants. This meant that the municipal office was well over-capacity for that size of crowd, even with an upstairs overflow room being used. The situation was aggravated by uncooperative technology that made it difficult to hear what was occurring in the Hearing for those who went to the “overflow” room. Many were able to watch the hearing online and a recording is now available on the County’s website for those who are interested. Feedback on the microphones has been a persistent problem that Administration is working to resolve. Council is likely to discuss the next steps for this proposed redesignation bylaw at the May 6th meeting.
The Budget Committee met on the morning of April 13th to review the Operating and Capital Budget with Administration. This year and for the for the foreseeable future we anticipate the policing (RCMP) and school (Alberta School Foundation Fund) requisitions will increase, as will the seniors (Marquis Foundation) requisition to a lesser degree. Given the growth in taxable assessment, the General Municipal tax rates will be reduced and maintained as follows. For Residential, the mill rate will go from 2.2 to 2.15. For Non-Residential, the mill rate will go from 8.75 to 7.975. For Non-Residential Small Business, the mill rate will go from 7.5 to 5.9813 mills. Farmland, which is a provincially regulated assessment, remains constant at 10.823 mills. The Capital Project Budget projects total expenditures of $8,009,608.00, with funding coming 40.86% from dedicated reserves, 20.14% from provincial grants, 38.5% from the current 2026 Operating Budget, 0.5% from the Carmangay Fire District for a rescue truck.
The April 22nd Regular Meeting saw the appointment of Kyle Malmberg as a Weed and Pest Inspector for the County. Council heard from the Director of Corporate Services and our auditor with KPMG on the 2025 Year End Reporting and Audited Financial Statements. We then proceeded to approve the Operating and Capital Budget, as well as pass all necessary tax rate bylaws.
Council has recognized May 4th to May 8th as Economic Development Week, in conjunction with other municipalities and the Economic Developers Alberta network. Stay tuned on social media for prize winning contests!
Sincerely,
Christopher Northcott