Athabasca County council passed the first two readings on a new bylaw to create a tax installment plan for ratepayers during their Nov. 14 meeting.
Athabasca County director of corporate services Brian Pysyk said the installment plan would only be open to residential parcels.
“If we open it up to everybody, oil companies and such, that is a huge financial impact on our tax flow, or it could be,” he said.
The Tax Installment Payment Plan (TIPP) would allow residents to make pre-authorized monthly payments on their taxes rather than one lump sum payment, and ratepayers can join anytime in the year.
There is no cost to join the TIPP, but according to Bylaw 007-2017, if a payment is returned for any reason, the taxpayer will pay a service charge in accordance with the current fees and charges schedule.
Coun. Larry Armfelt said the reason council began discussing a TIPP is more and more ratepayers are on a monthly income.
“They’re not farmers anymore that get a pay cheque once a year. They get a pay cheque every month they could easily budget around the system,” he said. “That was the reason that it was liked by the ratepayers.”
Council passed first and reading of the bylaw unanimously, with Coun. Christine Bilsky and Coun. Warren Griffin moving the readings.
Council delayed third reading of the bylaw, and Coun. Dennis Willcott said it would be nice to “let the public know what we’re doing.”
Council moved to seek an agreement with Bubble-Up Marketing in order to do a website redesign for $22,647.
County manager Ryan Maier said the website redesign was budgeted for this year, and a Request For Proposal was put out for the job. Bids ranged from $22,647 to $244,000.
“Part of the reason that Bubble-Up’s price was so much lower is that’s who’s already hosting our website,” Maier said. “They’re just going to basically work with Karl and revamp the website.”
Armfelt said if the county hires the same company, “let’s hope they’re going to make it less difficult than it is right now.”
“I’m not sure that that’s good advertising to hire the same people that have made it not easy currently, but they’re certainly cheaper.”
Willcott moved to instruct administration to seek an agreement with Bubble-Up Marketing for the design, development and hosting of a new website for Athabasca County. The motion was passed unanimously.
Council received a response from the Minister of Public Services and Procurement in regards to Canada Post, but not the response they were looking for.
Minister Carla Qualtrough sent a response in regards to council’s support of a recommendation to continue the moratorium on rural post offices in a House of Commons report on the future of Canada Post.
However, Maier said council still has not received a response on their letter seeking information on changes made by Canada Post informing some Athabasca County residents who receive mail at the Athabasca post office they should pay a fee or have their box transferred to the Colinton post office.
“They said that until they reviewed the process they weren’t going to enforce any more changes,” Maier said. “I do know they are still sending peoples notices that they have to change.”
Bilsky made a motion for council to write a letter back asking where Canada Post is at on a decision.
“Can we please write a letter back asking where they are at, and the bills or whatever we want to call them, are still being initiated and that you said nothing else would happen,” she said. “So a, did you not tell us what your final decision was, or b, who is not listening to who?”
The motion was passed unanimously.
In an e-mail response, Canada Post media relations officer Darcia Kmet said “we are still reviewing our options and expect to reach a decision in the coming weeks.”
“I’ve also confirmed that residents of Colinton may receive their renewal notice indicating a fee for their postal box,” Kmet stated. “However, until a decision is reached, there are no changes to delivery and no fees will be applied.”
