The province makes $845 million in revenue from linear property assessments each year, and Grande Prairie city council thinks cities should get a bigger piece of the pie.
Right now, municipal districts and counties get 77.6 per cent of the money made from properties with pipelines and oil and gas wells, as well as those with electric power, telecommunications, and cable systems on them. Cities only get 7.7 per cent.
Mayor Bill Given says the differential is one of the biggest reasons why the County can offer lower property taxes, and the city could do the same if they got a higher percentage. In 2015, the city got almost $1.9 million dollars in linear assessment revenue, while the County got more than $20 million and the MD of Greenview over $45 million.
The City plans to lobby with the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association for provincial electoral boundaries to be used to define regions instead. They also want the formula for Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding to be used to distribute funds equitably between municipalities in the region.