County of St. Paul denies request to cancel tax penalty fees

ST. PAUL – County of St. Paul council denied a request from a landowner to waive $1,104 of tax penalty fees, which accumulated due to unpaid tax levies in 2022, 2023, and 2024, after the landowner did not receive tax bills for an extended period of time.

During the Nov. 12 council meeting, Crystal St. Arnault, taxation and assessment technician with the County of St. Paul, explained the landowner missed several years of property tax notices due to an address mix-up.

She said the owner received tax notices from the County in the past but stopped receiving them after 2021.

According to St. Arnault, the property's title had been jointly held with another individual. When the co-owner passed away in 2021, the ownership change affected the records.

St. Arnault said the County uses address and other land title information from the Alberta Land Titles Office to update the tax roll, and mail out Property Assessment and Tax Notices.

In September 2021, the Land Titles Office provided updated information, and as per policy, the County must use that information, she explained.

However, the landowner did not officially update their address with the Alberta Land Titles Office, so the notices went to an old address.

"It is the owner's responsibility to keep the records at Land Titles up to date," reads information from the meeting agenda.

In September 2024, staff began tracking landowners that had three years in unpaid taxes before listing properties for public auction.

A tax statement was sent to a previous address that the owner listed on a transfer of land document. The landowner then reached out to make the request to cancel their tax penalty fees.

Coun. Darrell Younghans questioned the delay in noticing the missing tax notices.

"If you're a landowner and you haven't received tax notices for three years – I'd be going, 'Whoa, what happened'?" he commented.

Coun. Louis Dechaine made a motion to deny the request. The motion was carried.