County passes Business Tax and Business Tax Rate Bylaws

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Sunny South News

By Erika Mathieu
Sunny South News

Lethbridge County Council has passed the 2024 Business Tax and Business Tax Rate Bylaws.

As noted in the agenda report contained within the April 18 regular Lethbridge County Council meeting, Bylaw 24-008 was prepared for 2024 with no changes in content from the 2023 Bylaw except for changes to the bylaw number and dates. 

The County’s first Business Tax Bylaw was brought forward in 2017, and has been passed annually since.

The business tax bylaw must be passed before the County can pass a Business Tax Rate Bylaw. Administration made the recommendation that Council approve all three readings of Bylaw 24-008 during the April 18 regular council meeting. 

The Bylaw allows for business taxes to be collected from specific businesses operating in Lethbridge County as outlined in the bylaw, and is implemented to generate revenues for the municipality, which have been projected in the 2024 budget at $1.5 million, and was noted during deliberation of the 2024 Capital and Operating Budgets which was approved by council in Dec. 2023. Capital and operating funding needed to support the County’s “Market Access Network Program,” totals $2.15 million, of which $1.5 million is to be generated from the 2024 business taxes. 

All three readings of Bylaw 24-008 were passed by Council.

Following this, Jennifer Place, Director of corporate services for Lethbridge County presented 2024 Business Tax Rate Bylaw, #24-009 for Council’s consideration.  

A Business Tax Rate Bylaw must also be passed each year. The bylaw imparts the County with the authority to levy the tax and identifies details of the current business tax. As with Business Tax Bylaw (24-008), Bylaw 24-009 was presented for 2024 with no changes in content apart from the dates. 

Council previously considered reviewing the business tax rate for animal units and discussed the merits of implementing a rate increase on the basis of inflationary cost increases since 2017 related to materials and equipment. The report notes Council has continued to engage in discussions regarding applicable increases and amounts and directed administration to include in the 2024 Business Tax Rate Bylaw, a 2 per cent increase to the animal unit rate amounting to a 5 cent increase per animal unit(up to $2.55 from $2.50). 

On the topic of the increase to animal units, Councillor Eric Van Essen noted before moving the recommendation to consider the Bylaw for third reading, “there was robust discussion on this; we went around for quite a while and while it is definitely recognized to be controversial, this was not an easy conclusion to come to but hopefully seen as important.”

Council passed all three readings of Bylaw 24-009.