What causes one community to have higher or lower municipal taxes than the next?

Derek Decru is the manager of finance with the Rural Municipality of Hanover. Decru says municipal taxes are based on the mill rate times the assessment times the proportioning and may differ depending on whether the community is a part of the local urban district (LUD) or calculated alongside the rural residents.

"Each year our council sets up a service plan for the year, looking at what the needs are and what the requirements are for the municipality. They work closely with their LUD committees as well to establish the needs for the local communities," he explains. "Then they determined how much money needs to be raised. That, in turn, determines how much taxes are going to be raised by the municipality when we take off any kind of grants or any kind of revenue sources we have in place."

Decru says taxes may also differ due to the various services offered in each municipality or community.

"Three of our communities - Grunthal, Mitchell, and Blumenort - operate as separate 'cities' so they determine their taxes in the actual 'city' itself based on the service plans they develop. The communities of New Bothwell and Kleefeld operate as a general, at large, so they're lumped in with our rural area mill rate."

He notes some communities may have services such as garbage pickup, solid waste pickup, sewer fees, and police services where as others may not have as many services, or the services aren't included in the municipal tax rate and paid separately.

Chief Administrative Officer Luc Lahaie says when it comes to utility infrastructure and expansion, what has helped some communities is the presence of large industries.

"What has helped Blumenort is having large industries like Granny's and Country Meats and Sausage. Those industries do assist in the expansion of the communities utilities. Grunthal, same there, they have Parmalat as one of their large industries. So, they needed an expansion several years ago for Parmalat and the community as it was growing. Parmalat did take over the majority of the debt or the obligation to increase the size of that infrastructure."

Lahaie notes in New Bothwell there is Bothwell Cheese and they may be looking to expand in the next several years, which will mean the lagoon will also need to be expanded.

Decru says another difference between taxes from one community to the next may be influenced by the amount of debt a community has.

"Grunthal and Mitchell, they both have sewer utility debts, same with Kleefeld and New Bothwell. The Town of Blumenort has been fortunate over the years and has not accumulated [debt] and has managed to pay for their projects and growth out of the coffers they have, so their tax rate will obviously reflect that to some extent."

Lahaie adds it's rare for a community to have no debt noting the reserves Blumenort has allowed them to expand their forcemain a couple years ago without having to take out a loan.

 *All tax information has been received from the participating municipalities and is based on 2017 tax rates. Numbers are subject to urban/rural areas, lot/house size, services, and other variables. For more information on your individual tax information, please contact your municipal office for more details.