If every resident of Calgary wasn’t already feeling the pain of the collapse of oil prices, they soon could be. Although the emptying downtown office towers and idled rural rigs have been going on for five years, impacting thousands, the continually spreading economic malaise this week began turning up in property tax bills.introduces readers this weekend to Kelly Doody, who runs a small business teaching digital marketing to entrepreneurs.
More than 8,000 businesses in the city are facing double-digit property-tax increases at the end of the month as the city looks to find others to pick up the pieces in the wake of plummeting revenues elsewhere.The value of dozens of gleaming towers in downtown Calgary has crashed. A case in point: Fifth Avenue Place in downtown Calgary, a two-tower blue-glass structure that was once the headquarters of Imperial Oil, had been valued at $916-million in 2015. That dropped to $429-million by 2018.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi notes the city must balance its books by law. A plea for help from Premier Jason Kenney was met with advice to live within the city’s means. Mr. Nenshi said Ms. Doody’s situation was extreme, but not unusual. He said there are about 8,000 businesses facing property-tax increases of 10 per cent and some that are looking at “giant increases” of 30 per cent or more.
He said the city will be forced to look at deep structural changes to the tax program and that could require shifting more of the tax burden onto residents.This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor
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