The Voice: June 17th, 2025

We know that property taxes have important implications for economic competitiveness. In jurisdictions across Canada, studies have shown numerous ways in which businesses pay a disproportionate share of the tax burden. This problem is not Alberta’s alone and others have tried to solve it. For example, some jurisdictions have opted to recommend a rate ratio cap, effectively preventing the ratio from getting too large. Others have followed this trend, but singled out small business to benefit from a lower tax gap ratio at a quicker rate than they were able to implement for all business.

As in previous years, our analysis focuses on comparability with similarly sized municipalities across Alberta. While a full provincial comparison will not be available until December 2025, early indicators suggest that Medicine Hat continues to make progress in narrowing the non-residential tax gap, based on the most recent available data for 2025.

There has been progress on the Tax Ratio and although the 2.0 tax rate target has not been formally adopted as policy, the non-residential tax rate has improved and now ranks in the top half of Alberta municipalities. We know Council continues to receive annual options in April that include narrowing the tax gap. In 2025, the approved recommendation reflects a smaller gap, which we view as a positive step.

The City has also made commendable improvements in the availability and clarity of property tax information, as well as the improved property tax calculator, the GIS assessment map, and e-tax options, which we believe support a better understanding among taxpayers.

We also know that 2025 presented unique challenges that are largely external with the increase in the provincial education tax, the assessment shortfall and possible variances in provincial grants in place of taxes.

We have recommended City Council continue to revisit the issue each year to monitor developments and ensure continued alignment with business community interests to reduce the property tax gap and encourage future development. The challenges we have experienced with slowed growth and rising costs for municipal services across the community amplify concerns with the tax burden and will continue to do so moving forward without further assessment growth.

As a Chamber, we will review the tax proposals annually to determine where the City of Medicine Hat ranks and the progress towards narrowing the gap. Read the full article online.