A plan by the Jason Kenney government to give oil and gas companies a tax break on property where they operate, could deal a devastating blow for rural MD's and Counties.

Finance critic Joe Ceci says the UCP is proposing taking money from municipalities and giving it directly to multi-national corporations without a guarantee of jobs or investment in Alberta.

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley says the options being proposed by the government range from a seven to 20 per cent decrease in value of oil and gas industry properties.

"This means an average municipality would lose 12.4 per cent of revenues in the first year," she says. "In total rural municipalities would lose $290 million in 2021 alone."

She says rural municipalities would be required to raise property taxes by 200 per cent, on average, to make up for the losses.

Notley says Brazeau County has said it could be up to 300 per cent for them, while Newell County is looking at a 466 per cent increase and Northern Sunrise County has said this could lead to a 521 per cent jump in tax bills for local ratepayers.

Foothills County Division 2 councillor Delilah Miller says the cuts could cost Foothills County as much as two million dollars.

Miller says she'd like to, at least, see some guarantees of jobs from from the oil and gas sector.

 

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