SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
The 2025 provincial budget with its $5.2 billion deficit is filled with uncertainty and questions including the effects from tariffs, a predicted decrease in oil and gas revenue along with a personal tax cut and increased school taxes.
While there will be a change on the first $60,000 of income earned by Albertans, the provincial portion of the property tax for education will increased this year and again next year to help build additional schools.
The education budget will be above $10 billion, and it is expected to be above $11 billion next year.
Across the region the education portion will range in increases from eight per cent for Rosemary up to 16 per cent for Bassano.
The province will collect $13.065 million in education taxes from the County of Newell, which is an increase of 10 per cent over last year.
County reeve Arno Doerksen said that may lead to a discussion as to how the school tax will affect ratepayers.
“We’ll have to take a look at it and see. The final (budget) decision is still ahead of us,” he said.
He said the budget is realistic, the province has been careful and a lot will depend on what the year brings whether it’s tariffs or free trade.
“I think there’s a few outcomes. I think it’s a realistic budget, there’s a break for the lower tax brackets. It’s a difficult reality to deal with and I think he’s done a good job,” said Doerksen.
While there is some uncertainty in the province, there is some certainty regarding funds for the Crop Diversification Centre.
The county will take over much of its management on April 1.
“It’s a good start. They’ve allocated $3 million for repairs and upgrades on the facility. That’s a good thing and they’ve allocated $500,000 for operating which is a good shot in the arm to get started,” he said.
Doerksen said there will be more upgrades to be done based on an assessment and the price was higher but the funds allocated are a good start.
“The government will be making more announcements about it so there will be more details.”
Through the budget there is funding for both the north (Edmonton) and south (Brooks) crop diversification centres and the Western Crop Innovations in Calgary.
This year’s funding is being increased by $3 million and it will be increased by $2 million in each of the following two years. The budget states that the funds will be used to help producers address threats from emerging plant health issues, invasive species and climate change.
Also through the agricultural budget, there will be increases in funding for regional agricultural societies.
A good piece of news is that Highway 1 and Highway 36 overpass is in the planning and engineering stage which is expected to take at least two years.
In the city, the education portion will increase nine percent over last year to $4,529,436 and while mayor John Petrie agreed that the tax bracket will filter down to residents it will also have an affect on the city’s municipal taxes.
The city’s residential tax increase is sitting at 5.75 per cent and with the education tax portion that will go above six per cent.
“That’s the teeter totter effect,” he said.
As well the city expects to get some funds returned for its grant in lieu of taxes.
At a recent council meeting the city wrote off $12,223 which is deemed to be uncollectable from the province and is half the amount of the levied property taxes for the court house.
Petrie said the increase of Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) will help the city. Its 2025 allocation is $2,100,833 which is $286,330 over last year and next year the city’s allocation will drop to $2,085,971.
He said the city is watching for funds for the new wastewater facility that is tagged at about $39 million.
“I was kind of hoping, and I know administration was looking to see if there’s money for the start of that,” he said.
